Celina Dursley and the Philosopher's Stone
by darkangelevanescent
Summary: What if a Dursley was magical? Join Celina Dursley, twin sister of Dudley, as she battles through Hogwarts with her cousin in their first year! Rated T to be safe. *APPS CLOSED*
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

"Up! Get up!" I groaned as I heard my mother's voice downstairs, no doubt waking my cousin up. I sat up, my curls flying everywhere.

"Up!" I heard footsteps on the stairs and I tried to pat my curls down before Mum opened my bedroom door.

"Happy birthday, popkin," she smiled as she swooped down and gave me a huge hug.

"Thanks, Mum," I said into her chest. She broke away with a kiss on my cheek and headed towards the door.

"Breakfast will be ready soon," Mum said before she disappeared. Yawning, I got out of bed and fumbled around on the floor for my top from yesterday. Once I was dressed, I stared into my mirror as I started to brush my hair.

"Awake, Cellie?" my twin brother Dudley teased as I exited my room. Oooh, I hated that nickname!

"Shut it, Diddy," I retorted and walked downstairs. As I entered the kitchen, the first thing that caught my eye was the massive pile of presents for my brother on the table. I then saw the slightly smaller pile in the corner for me. I never got as much as Dudley, whether it be presents, food or attention. I was always in the background for the most part and the only time I got as much attention as Dudley was on our birthday. But that's not to say that I didn't get any attention; Dudley just got more.

I sat down in the kitchen next to my father, who ruffled my hair and said "Happy birthday, Celina!"

"Thanks, Dad," I grinned and then I saw my cousin at the stove, cooking the bacon. Harry Potter had arrived on our doorstep ten years ago, apparently an orphan, and my parents had taken him in. But honestly, I felt as if he was better off in an orphanage, what with the way my parents treated him.

"Comb your hair!" Dad barked to Harry. I really couldn't see the point; no matter what anyone did to Harry's hair, it never lay flat. It was always all over the place and so was mine, but you didn't see Dad telling _me _off! Dudley walked in a few minutes later and started counting his presents. I looked over into the corner and counted around twenty or so presents for me, which I was happy with. I never usually asked for much, but I was spoiled on my birthday anyway.

"Thirty six," Dudley said to Mum as she came into the kitchen. Dudley was three times as big as me, with the same blond hair and blue eyes as me, except that his hair lay smoothly on his head, while mine was long and curly. I also had a small wash of freckles across my nose but Dudley had no freckles. "That's two less than last year."

"I don't know what the fuss is, Dudley, I've got enough," I shrugged as Harry put a plate of bacon and eggs down in front of me.

"Thirty seven, popkin, you didn't see Auntie Marge's present here," Mum said as Dudley glared at me.

"Thirty seven then," Dudley said, his chubby face turning red. I grinned at Harry as he started to wolf his breakfast down, knowing that a Dudley tantrum was on the way.

"And we'll buy you two more presents," Mum said quickly, sensing the oncoming tantrum. "How's that, sweetie?"

"So, I'll have thirty...thirty..." I rolled my eyes at how dumb my brother was.

"Thirty nine, Duds," I answered.

"That's my smart little girl," Mum beamed. "Would you like anything else while we're out?"

"No thanks, Mum," I answered as I finished my bacon. The telephone suddenly rang and Mum walked off to answer it. Dudley started ripping into his presents. He got a racing bike (don't ask me why), a VCR, a video camera, sixteen new video games, a remote control aeroplane and heaps more. Most of my presents were clothes or books, which I was fine with. I didn't know why Dudley needed all that stuff; half of it ended up broken anyway.

"Bad news, Vernon," Mum said as Dudley was opening a gold wristwatch and I was admiring a deep blue dress. "Mrs Figg's leg is broken, she can't take him." She jerked his head in Harry's direction. My brother's mouth opened in horror and I smiled at a happy-looking Harry. Every year, Mum and Dad took Dudley, me and a friend each to adventure parks, restaurants and stuff like that, while Harry was sent to Mrs Figg's, a mad old lady. From what Harry told me before, she makes him look at pictures of all the cats she's ever owned and she's really horrible to him.

"Now what?" Mum said, looking at Harry accusingly. I didn't think that was fair; Harry hardly could've done this!

"We could phone Marge," Dad suggested and Harry's face screwed up. _Horrible idea! _I thought.

"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy." I silently agreed with my mother.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On holiday in Majorca."

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in and I knew what was going through his mind: he was hoping to watch television or play Dudley's computer.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" Mum said, pursing her lips.

"He won't blow up the house..." I said but Mum and Dad were talking again.

"We could take him and leave him in the car."

"The car's new, Petunia, he's not sitting in it alone."

At that moment, Dudley started to cry. He wasn't really crying - it had been years since he had last done it - but if he screwed up his face and wailed, Mum would give him whatever he wanted.

"I...don't...want...him...t-t-to come!" Dudley cried. "He always sp-spoils everything!"

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let that nasty boy spoil your and your sister's special day!" Mum said, flinging herself onto Dudley. Dudley sent Harry a smug look and I glared at him, then rolled my eyes. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Oh Good Lord, they're here!" Mum said and went to answer the door. A moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in. He was scrawny and had a rat-like face and he was usually the one who restrained people while my brother hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry immediately and I smirked.

"Hey, Celina," he said with a wink in my direction and I suppressed a shudder. I don't know when that boy started to take an interest in me, but it was...creepy.

"Hi," I muttered and Harry sent me a sympathetic look. The phone rang again and Mum went off to answer it.

"Bad news, pumpkin," she said to me as she came back into the kitchen. "Kelly's got the flu and can't come today."

"That's alright," I said.

Half an hour later, I was sitting in the backseat and sharing a seatbelt with Harry, who couldn't believe that he was allowed to come. Before he went, Dad had taken Harry aside and said "I'm warning you now, boy...any funny usiness and you'll be in that cupboard from now till Christmas."

"I won't do anything," he had said, but it was no use. Strange things happened around him and even me sometimes, with no explanation. Once, when Mum was fed up with Harry's hair, she had cut it until he was almost bald, but she left a fringe to cover up that 'hideous scar' on his forehead. Apparently, he had got it in the car crash when my aunt and uncle had died. Anyway, I had spent the night in his cupboard (where he slept) with him, comforting him, but the next day, it had grown back, good as new.

Another time, Mum was trying to persuade me to wear one of Dudley's ugly old jumpers (brown with orange bobbles), but the more I tried to pull it over my head, the smaller it became. Mum decided that it had shrunk in the wash and thankfully Harry wasn't punished (although I don't see how he could've had anything to do with it anyway).

But Harry had gotten into serious trouble once for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. He was running from my brother's gang and went to jump behind the rubbish bins, but the next moment, he was on the roof! Mum and Dad had received an angry letter home for this and Dad locked Harry in his cupboard again as punishment.

"Being around them two is almost worth it today," Harry whispered to me and I gave him a sad smile.

Dad was complaining loudly in the front to Mum. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. Today, the unlucky subject was motorbikes.

"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," Dad said as a motorcyclist overtook us.

"I had a dream about a flying motorbike," Harry said suddenly. My eyes widened as Dad turned around and roared "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"

"I know!" Harry said quickly. "It was just a dream!" I don't know why, but Mum and Dad hate anything out of the ordinary, even if it was in a dream or a cartoon - maybe they thought Harry would get dangerous ideas.

When we arrived at the zoo, Mum and Dad bought me, Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams, but Harry didn't get anything, so I used some of my pocket money to buy him a lemon ice lolly.

"Thanks, but you didn't have to do that," he whispered as I passed it to him.

"Don't worry about it," I said back. We walked around for a bit and with a little persuasion, Harry and I managed to go off by ourselves.

"Meet us in the reptile house, popkin!" Mum said as my cousin and I set off towards the lions. Piers winked and grinned at me as I turned my back and I shivered.

"Thanks," Harry said, relieved. "I don't think I could've stood it if Dudley and Piers started to beat me up again."

"No problem," I said. "I wanted to get away from Piers anyway."

"He is really creepy, isn't he?" Harry grinned as we stopped to look at the gorillas.

"You have no idea," I muttered. I noticed Harry studying one of the gorillas closely and I asked him what was up.

"It looks a lot like Dudley..." he muttered, screwing his eyes up in fake concentration. "Except that it's not blond." I started giggling and then we started to laugh uncontrollably and for a long time, we couldn't stop.

"Let's go to the reptile house," I suggested once we had calmed down. We entered and saw Dad and Dudley straight away. They were banging on the glass of an enclosure, trying to get the reptile in there to move.

"Hey Dad, hey Dud," I said as we walked over.

"Hello, Celina," Dad said. Both of them ignored Harry and Dudley just rolled his eyes at me.

"Make it move!" he whined and Dad tapped the glass again. I looked through it and saw the biggest snake I had ever seen sleeping on a rock. It looked like it could coil itself twice around our car, but it didn't look in the mood.

"This is boring," Dudley said and he and Dad walked off. Harry and I turned back to the snake and it raised its head to look at us.

"Did - did it just _wink_?" I said in astonishment as the snake slithered close to us.

"I think it did," Harry murmured. I heard the snake hiss and then, to my surprise, Harry hissed back.

"Harry? Did you just hiss?" I asked as Harry hissed yet again at the snake.

"No," Harry frowned. "I just asked the snake where it was born."

"No you didn't," I said in a small voice. "You started hissing and rasping; I thought you were about to have a fit!" Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME HERE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!" Piers hollered. Dudley came waddling over and shoved Harry out of the way.

"Harry, are you alright?" I asked as I helped him up. I saw him glaring at Dudley and, a moment later, the glass disappeared! He and Piers started screaming and so did I; that snake looked about ready to eat me!

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you," Harry said to me and I heard the snake hiss something to him before slithering out of the building. The keeper repeated "But the glass!" over and over and Mum was in shock. The zoo director made Mum a cup of strong tea and I was shaking, so he made me a hot chocolate.

When we finally left, Dudley and Piers started babbling about how the snake had tried to eat them and squash them and I rolled my eyes at their exaggerations; as far as Harry and I had seen, all it had tried to do was snap at their heels. Still, I could understand why they were so scared.

"Don't worry, Celina," Piers said with a suggestive grin. "I'll keep you safe next time." He put his arm around me and I shoved him off, noticing how Harry glared angrily.

"Shove off, creep," I muttered. He decided to get revenge for that by telling Dad how Harry was talking to the snake and Harry groaned under his breath. Dad waited until Piers had left and then collapsed into a chair.

"Go - cupboard - stay- no - meals!" he wheezed and Mum had to get him a large brandy.

Later that night, I lay awake, contemplating. Harry had suffered with Mum and Dad for ten long years. At home he was unwanted, and at school he had no friends; my brother and his gang had made sure of that. He had even threatened to beat me and my friends up if we went near him - and no one, not even his own twin sister, disagrees with his gang.

**Was it good? Due to schoolwork, I can't update as much as I'd like to, so please excuse my irregular soon-to-be updates! Just giving you guys a heads-up...Oh yeah, I'm giving you guys the opportunity to create Celina's soon-to-be best friend and crush! Here is a form to fill out if you want to submit:**

**Name:**

**Gender:**

**House (if crush; if best friend, I'm most likely going to put them in Gryffindor):**

**Blood Status:**

**Crush or best friend:**

**Hair colour:**

**Eye colour:**

**Appearance (everything else):**

**Siblings:**

**Parents:**

**History (doesn't need to be dramatic):**

**Personality:**

**Favourite class and professor:**

**Least favourite class and professor:**

**Hobby:**

**Pet? If so, species and name:**

**Patronus:**

**Sorry, only one entry per person (best friend can be either gender).**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

After the boa constrictor episode, Harry had to endure his longest punishment yet; by the time he was allowed out of his dreaded cupboard, the summer holidays had begun.

Already, my brother had smashed half his birthday presents: his cine camera, his remote control aeroplane and he even knocked Mrs Figg over as he raced past her on his racing bike. I was watching from across the road, so I ran over and helped her up and she hobbled away slowly, muttering "God knows what happened to the other one."

I could tell that Harry was glad that school was over, but now he had to work to avoid Dudley and his gang. They were always open for Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting. Or, in Piers' case, Celina Flirting. I was sick to death of his winking at me or smiling suggestively or even attempting to put his arm around me. Dudley made no effort to stop his best friend; on the contrary, he and his gang let out wolf-whistles whenever it happened.

"Buzz off, Piers!" I finally snapped after another round of his trying to put his arm around me. "I don't like you; I never have and I never will!" He and the gang retaliated by punching Harry until his arms and ribs were black and blue all over.

"I hate that jerk," I said to Harry when they'd gone.

"I know how you feel," he replied. "And can you give me a hand?" I helped Harry up and supported him as he limped to his cupboard, where he collapsed onto his small bed.

"Thanks," he panted.

"Harry, something great will happen to you," I said to him. "I know it. I mean, look at all the rotten luck you've had; something good is bound to happen!" He gave me a sad smile but didn't say anything.

One good thing came out of this mess; Harry and Dudley were going to different high schools. Dudley was going to Smeltings, Dad's old school. It was strictly boys only, so I couldn't go. Not that I actually minded. I was especially happy with the boys only rule, because Piers was going there too, so I could get away from him and his creepiness. I was going to Stonewall High, the local high school, with Harry. Dudley obviously thought that it was a big joke.

"They stuff the heads of new kids down the toilets there," he grinned. "Want to come and practise, Harry? I'll do Celina next."

"No thank you," Harry answered. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it; it might be sick." He bolted as Dudley tried to work out what was said and I ran after him, stifling my laughter behind my hand.

A week later, Mum took Dudley into London to buy his Smeltings uniform and left Harry and even me at Mrs Figg's, something she had never done before. Mrs Figg didn't seem to be as bad as Harry made her out to be; she let us watch TV and gave us some chocolate cake.

"I think the cats have loosened her up a bit," Harry whispered to me through a mouthful of cake. I snorted, spraying crumbs everywhere.

Later that night, Mum and Dad held a fashion show so that Dudley could parade in his new clothes. He wore a flat straw hat, orange knickerbockers and a maroon tailcoat. He also carried around a knobbly stick, which was supposed to be training for later life, although I had no idea how.

Dad said, in a voice constricted with emotion, that this was the proudest moment of his life and Mum burst into tears and said that she couldn't believe that her Ickle Duddykins was all grown up. Harry looked like he had cracked a rib from trying not to laugh and I wasn't that far behind. Mum and Dad were totally ignoring me and it felt weird; they had never completely ignored me before.

The next morning, a horrible smell greeted us in the kitchen when Harry and I walked in for breakfast.

"What's this?" Harry asked, peering into a tub of grey water.

"Your uniform," Mum said with pursed lips, because Harry had broken her number one rule: never ask questions.

"Oh," he replied. "I didn't know it had to be so wet." I had to turn my head to hide the grin that was threatening to unfurl on my face.

"Don't be stupid," Mum snapped. "I'm dyeing some of Dud's old clothes grey. They'll look just like everyone else's when I'm done." I doubted that, and I knew Harry did too. I especially doubted it when I saw a neatly folded grey uniform in the living room with price tags still on the pieces of clothing, like they were meant to be seen. Knowing Mum, I bet they were - by Harry.

Dad and Dudley entered the kitchen and Dad wrinkled his nose at the smell, sat down and unfolded his newspaper. Dudley banged his stick on the table as he sat down. Lately, he felt the need to take that everywhere, maybe to remind us that he was the one with the weapon or something like that.

The mail slot clicked and Dad said, from behind his paper, "Dudley, get the mail." I couldn't believe my ears: Dad was telling Dudley to do something?

"Make Harry or Celina get it."

"Harry, get the mail." _That_ sounded more like Dad!

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your stick, Duds." Harry dodged the stick and walked out into the hall. A few moments passed and Dad called out "Hurry up, boy! What're you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled and I rolled my eyes. Harry walked back in, handed Dad two letters and then slipped one to me as he sat down. I looked at mine in surprise. In green ink, written on yellowish parchment, was:

_Miss C. Dursley_

_The Smallest Bedroom_

_4 Privet Drive_

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

I gave Harry a stunned look and he held an almost identical letter up, the only difference being his name and room. I turned my letter over and saw a purple wax seal with a lion, a badger, an eagle and a snake surrounding a large 'H'.

"Dad! Dad, Harry and Celina have letters!" Dudley cried suddenly as I started to open mine. Dad snatched them from us and Harry yelled "They're ours!"

"Who'd be writing to you, boy?" Dad sneered and turned them over. His face went from red to green to porridge-grey, and he stammered "P-P-Petunia!" Dudley tried to grab the letter as Mum came over and she gasped.

"Oh, Vernon! Vernon!" she cried. They stared at each other and it was like Harry, Dudley and I were invisible.

"I want to read those letters!" Dudley demanded and, unused to being ignored, hit Dad over the head with his stick.

"Well, _we _want to read those letters, as they're _ours_," I said to Mum and Dad but they pretended not to hear me.

"Get out, all three of you," Dad croaked, stuffing the letters back into the envelopes. None of us moved.

"I want to read them!" Dudley yelled.

"WE WANT OUR LETTERS!" Harry shouted.

"OUT!" Dad thundered and he threw Harry and Dudley out into the hall, while Mum pushed me out. Harry and Dudley had a furious fight over who would listen at the keyhole and, sighing, I lowered myself down to listen at the bottom of the door. Harry joined me a moment later, glasses askew.

"You could've saved yourself a heap of trouble, you know," I murmured and he grinned at me.

"Vernon, look at the addresses!" Mum said in a high-pitched voice. "How could they know where our daughter sleeps? How could they know where the boy sleeps? Do you think they're watching this house?"

"Watching - spying - may be following us," Dad muttered insanely. I watched his shiny new shoes pace up and down.

"But what do we do, Vernon? Do we write back, tell them Celina and the boy - that we don't want -"

"No," Dad said after a minute. "No, we'll ignore them. Yes, that's the best way. If they don't get an answer..."

"But -"

"I'm not having one, let alone two, in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear that when we took the boy in, we'd stamp out all that dangerous nonsense?" Harry raised an eyebrow curiously at me.

"I just can't believe our own daughter..." Mum whispered. "And Dudley isn't...what did we do to deserve this?"

That evening, when Dad got home from work, he visited Harry in his cupboard for the first time. I was in there having a discussion with Harry about the letters and we shut up the minute he stuck his head in.

"Where're our letters?" Harry demanded instantly. "Who's writing to me and Celina?"

"No one, it was a mistake. I have burned them."

"It was not a mistake!" Harry said. "Mine had my cupboard on it!"

"SILENCE!" Dad thundered and a few spiders fell off the roof. He forced his face into a painful smile and I wondered when the last time was that Dad genuinely smiled; he didn't even smile on my birthday.

"Ah, yes, Harry...about this cupboard...your aunt and I were thinking that it was a bit small...we'd like it if you'd move into Celina's room." I smiled to myself, but grew a bit suspicious.

"Why?" Harry asked and I knew that he felt the same way as me.

"Don't ask questions!" Dad shouted. "Just move your stuff upstairs now!" Harry only needed to take one trip upstairs to move all his stuff into my room. My room wasn't exactly a typical eleven year old girl's; along with all my stuff, there were heaps of broken toys and other things of Dudley's, as his room was full already and he needed somewhere to dump rubbish.

As Harry put his stuff away, I set up the spare bed for him and listened to Dudley's whining.

"Get him out of there...I need that room...that's my sister's room...he shouldn't be allowed in there!" Harry and I exchanged a grin.

"Since when has he ever cared about something of yours?" Harry said. I shrugged and laid down a blanket and a pillow. Harry sighed and lay down gratefully the moment I was finished.

"I'd actually prefer to be in the cupboard if I could have my letter," he said, his eyes closed. "And you yours, too."

"I know what you mean," I nodded.

At breakfast the next morning, Dudley was in a state of shock. He had trashed half of his stuff, hit our parents so many times that I was surprised none of their bones were broken, screamed so much that he was sick and thrown my pet tortoise, Jen, out of the greenhouse roof; she hadn't survived the fall and I was still mad at him. And yet he still didn't have his way; Harry was still in my room. I smiled sweetly at my brother as I bit into my toast and he scowled darkly at me. Mum and Dad were carefully not looking at me and I wondered what these letters were, to make my parents behave like this.

When the mail came, Dad made Dudley go and get it; maybe he was trying to be nice to Harry. We could hear Dudley banging his stick all up the hall and then he shouted "There are two more! Mr H. Potter and Miss C. Dursley, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -"

With a roar, Dad leapt up and ran into the hall, Harry behind him. Dad had to wrestle Dudley to get the letters off him and Harry grabbed Dad around the neck. Dad straightened up, breathing heavily.

"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," Dad wheezed. "Celina, you too. Dudley - just go..."

Harry and I walked up to our room and locked the door behind us.

"What're we going to do?" I said. "How're we going to get our letters?"

"Don't worry," Harry said reassuringly. "I have a plan."

"Oh brother," I moaned.

At six the next morning, I was woken by my repaired alarm clock and saw Harry silently getting dressed. He saw that I was awake and put a finger to his lips, then crept out of the room.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said and followed him on tiptoes. I saw him creep across the hall and a dark shape shift at the front door.

"Oh crap," I whispered and ran down the stairs to warn my cousin, but I was too late.

"AAARRGGGGHH!" Dad yelled as Harry stepped on his face. I watched, frightened, from the shadows as Dad yelled at Harry for at least half an hour, then told him to make him a cup of tea. I trudged upstairs quietly to get dressed and came downstairs ten minutes later to see Dad shredding up six letters in front of an indignant Harry.

Dad didn't go to work that day. Instead, he stayed home and nailed up the mail slot.

"See, if they can't deliver them, they have to give up!" he explained to my doubtful mother.

"I don't think that'll work, Vernon," she answered as she handed him a slice of fruitcake.

"Oh, these people's minds don't work like ours, Petunia," he said cheerfully as he attempted to use his fruitcake to knock in a nail.

"Lucky them," Harry muttered to me.

On Friday, about twelve letters for me and Harry arrived. Because the mail slot was nailed shut, they found a way in through the sides and bottom of the door and through the window in the downstairs bathroom.

Dad took the day off work again and nailed up the front and back doors, so that no one could get in or out. He hummed 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' as he did and jumped at tiny noises.

"He's finally cracked," I whispered to Harry from where we were sitting on the stairs, watching Dad.

"No kidding," he whispered back and we snorted quietly.

On Sunday morning, Dad sat at the table, not looking very well but looking very happy.

"Ah, no post on Sundays!" he sighed contentedly. Harry sniggered and pointed out to me that Dad was spreading his butter on his newspaper. I grinned back at him and Dudley looked like he was wondering what was so funny. "No sirree, none at all." _Whizz!_

"Ow!" Dudley whined as a letter struck him on the back of the head. I looked past him to the chimney and saw dozens of letters shoot out and swirl around the room. Mum, Dad and Dudley ducked but Harry and I jumped up and tried to catch one.

"Out! OUT!" Dad roared, grabbing Harry around the waist and throwing him into the hall. Mum pushed me out to join him and ran out too a second later, arms protectively around Dudley. Dad bolted out and slammed the door shut, some letters bouncing off it.

"That does it," he said, trying to be calm but pulling out chunks of his moustache. "We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" He looked so terrifying with half his moustache gone that no one dared to argue with him.

Ten minutes later, we had wrenched the door open and tumbled into the car. Dudley was sniffing because Dad had belted him for taking too long to pack; he had tried to fit his VCR, computer and TV in his sports bag.

We drove. And drove. And drove some more. Mum looked like she wanted to ask Dad where we were going, but thought better of it. Every now and then, Dad would turn around and drive in the opposite direction for a bit.

"Shake 'em off..." he muttered when he did this.

We didn't stop to eat or drink at all and my stomach sounded like a hungry lion. Dudley was howling because he reckoned that this was the worst day of his life; he'd missed five TV programs he'd wanted to see, he'd never gone this long without playing his computer and he was starving. Actually, I agreed with him on the last point.

Finally, Dad stopped at a gloomy looking hotel and Dudley, Harry and I shared a room with twin beds. The sheets were damp and musty but Dudley fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow. Harry stayed awake, his eyes misty with thought, and I eventually fell asleep at the foot of the bed.

Next morning, we had breakfast; cold tinned tomatoes on toast and stale cornflakes.

"You call this food?" Dudley said and Harry rolled his eyes. We had just finished when the hotel owner came up and asked "'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." She held up a letter and we read:

_Mr H. Potter_

_Room 17_

_Railview Hotel_

_Cokeworth_

"And there's some for a Miss C. Dursley too," she added. Harry suddenly dove for the letter but Dad pulled him back.

"I'll take them," he said when the lady stared at him and he went off to collect the letters. Harry sat down in disappointment.

"Dear, wouldn't it be better to go home?" Mum suggested timidly a few hours later, but Dad ignored her.

None of us knew what he was looking for. He drove us into the middle of a forest, the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge and at the top of a multilevel car park and, each time, got out, looked around, shook his head and drove off again.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley said to Mum a few hours later. Harry and I carefully avoided each other's eyes, afraid that we'd start laughing.

"It's Monday," Dudley snivelled as it started to rain. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with television." I gave a start. If it was Monday today, (you could usually rely on Dudley to know the days of the week due to television) then Harry's birthday was tomorrow, Tuesday. Of course, those weren't exactly fun; for his last birthday, he had gotten a pair of Dad's old socks and a coathanger, and those had been the only birthday presents he'd ever gotten.

"It's your birthday tomorrow!" I whispered to him and he smiled slightly at me for remembering. Dad came back and he was smiling; that didn't exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. He had a long, thin package and ignored Mum when she asked what it was.

"Found the perfect place!" he said cheerfully. "Come on, everyone out!"

It was freezing outside. Dad pointed at a large rock-shaped thing out to sea. I squinted and saw a hut perched on it.

"There's no TV there, that's for sure," I muttered to Harry and he gave a sort of half-smile, half-grimace.

"Storm forecast for tonight!" Dad grinned gleefully. "And this old gentleman here's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

A toothless old man next to me pointed out to a shabby-looking boat in the steel-grey water.

"I've organised the rations, so all aboard!" Dad said.

Dad's 'rations' turned out to be a packet of chips each and a banana. When we got to the shack and ate them, Dad tried to burn the packets, but all the appeared was smoke.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he grinned. I looked out the window and I agreed with Dad, no one stood a chance in that weather. That didn't exactly comfort me.

I examined the shack around me; there were just two rooms. Mum and Dad went off to the lumpy bed next door, tucked Dudley in on the couch and left two blankets for me and Harry, so I assumed that we were supposed to sleep on the floor. Harry and I lay side to side to keep warm, huddled in the blankets.

"I wonder why Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are treating you this way," Harry said.

"I know," I replied. "I wonder what was in those letters, it would have to be something horrible to make them act like this."

"Or something excellent," Harry muttered half-hopingly. We lay in silence while the storm raged around us, listening to Dudley's snores. I caught sight of his watch.

"Five minutes," I whispered and his face screwed up. Four minutes...

"Should we wake him up, just to ignore him?" Harry grinned suddenly.

"He'll flatten us if he misses out on sleep," I replied. Three minutes...

"Is that a wave slapping the rock?" I said suddenly.

"Could be," Harry said, listening. Two minutes...

"That sounds like crumbling rock," Harry said and I shivered. One minute...

BOOM.

**Ok, I have three entries already, so thanks to .Uchiha, lovewar66 and MrsMalfoy! Entries will remain open until Celina and Harry depart for Hogwarts and I do need a crush you know! **

**Oh yeah, I am actually thinking of putting Celina and therefore her best friend in a house other than Gryffindor, so the two who have already submitted a Gryffindor are welcome to change their OC's house if they want! Even if Celina does end up in Gryffindor, she can still be friends with them!**

**And, just so I don't disappoint you people, if your OCs aren't chosen, I might make them minor characters! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

BOOM.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"Where's the cannon?" my brother said as he shot up. There was a crash and Dad slid in the room, a rifle in his hands - the mystery of the package was solved.

"Who's there?" he yelled. "I warn you, I'm armed!"

SMASH.

The door flew off its hinges and the silhouette of a giant man could be seen in the doorway. I gasped as he stooped and entered the hut and Harry squeezed my hand. He had long, wild black hair and a matching beard but his eyes, like black beetles, looked friendly enough.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..." He strode over to the couch, where Dudley was terrified with fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump," he said and Dudley scurried away, squeaking fearfully.

"An' here's Harry!" the giant said, his eyes crinkling in a smile as he looked at my cousin. "Las' time I saw yeh, you were only a baby. You look a lot like your dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes." Harry stood there, half-shocked, half-confused, and I stared at him, trying to picture my dead uncle.

"An' yeh're Celina, the on'y good one outta the lot," the giant said to me and, too scared to talk, I nodded. "Yeh've got yer aunt's face and her attitude too, I'm hoping." So that's where I got my round face shape from! Mum made a movement when the giant compared me to my late aunt and I wondered what that was about.

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" Dad said. "You are breaking and entering!"

_Dad's got guts, _I thought.

"Ah, dry up Dursley, yeh great prune," the giant said and snatched the rifle from Dad, twisted it into a metal pretzel and threw it into a corner. Dad made a sound, like a mouse being stepped on.

"Anyway, Harry, a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat for yeh - mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste alrigh'." The giant pulled a box out of one of his coat pockets and handed it to Harry.

"Open it," I urged quietly and he opened the box to reveal a sticky-looking chocolate cake that had _Happy Birthday Harry _on it in green icing. Harry looked up at the giant and I knew that he meant to thank him, but instead he said "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled and said "True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out his hands and shook our arms, making them throb slightly.

"What about that tea then, eh?" He rubbed his hands together. "Although I wouldn' say no teh summat stronger, if yeh have it."

He snorted as he saw the empty fireplace. He bent down over it and straightened up a second later, a roaring fire in place of the shrivelled chip packets. I felt like I was in heaven, especially after the freezing winds from outside.

The giant sat down on the couch and emptied his pockets of teacups, a copper kettle, a poker, a packet of sausages and a bottle of amber liquid, which he had some of before cooking.

Soon the hut was full of the smell of the cooking sausages and, as the giant slid the first six sausages out, Dad said sharply "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley. You too Celina, you're not to touch anything." The giant chuckled.

"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' up anymore, Dursley. An' Celina's welcome to eat anything if she wants." He passed me and Harry the sausages and we scoffed them as if we'd never eaten before (me ignoring the glares my father was shooting me) but we still couldn't away from the giant.

"I'm sorry, but we still don't really know who you are," Harry said after a bit. The giant drank a bit of tea and wiped his mouth with his hand.

"Call me Hagrid, everyone does," he replied. 'An' like I told yeh two, I'm the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts - but yeh'll know all abou' that, o' course."

"Sorry, no," I said in a slightly high-pitched voice and Hagrid's face darkened.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly and I resisted the urge to groan. Typical Harry; always apologising for everything and taking the blame. Though I suppose that was the fault of my parents.

"Sorry?" Hagrid thundered. He glared at my family, who cowered in their corner. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh an' Celina weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh two wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all, Harry?"

"All what?" asked Harry.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!" He jumped up and he was so angry that he seemed to fill the whole shack.

"Do yeh mean teh tell me that this boy - this girl - know nothin' about anything?" I felt offended at that; I was excellent at school and Harry was good as well.

"We know things!" I said. "I'm good at history and Harry's awesome at maths!" Harry looked at me, surprised. Hagrid waved that aside.

"About _our _world, I mean, Celina," he said. "_My _world. _Yeh aunt and uncle's _world."

"What world?" Harry and I said together and Hagrid looked like he would explode any minute.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed. Dad mumbled something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."

"But yeh mus' know about yeh mum an' dad, Harry," Hagrid said a little wildly. "I mean, _they're _famous. _Yeh're _famous. An' yeh'll be famous too, Celina, fer bein' his cousin." I was taken aback that Harry and even I were famous.

"My parents were famous?" Harry said in surprise.

"Yeh don' know...yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his hand through his hair and fixed Harry with a bewildered look.

"Yeh an' Celina don' know what yeh two _are_?"

"Stop!" Dad said suddenly. "I forbid you to tell the boy and my daughter anything!"

"Yeh never told him?" Hagrid said, every syllable quaking with rage. "Yeh never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it there, Dursley! An' yeh've kept it from him all these years!"

"Kept _what _from me?" Harry said eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" Dad yelled, all panicky.

"Ah go boil yer heads, all o' yeh," Hagrid said when Mum gasped in horror. "Harry, Celina - yeh're a witch and a wizard." There was a deafening silence.

"We're a _what_?" Harry and I said at the same time.

"A witch and a wizard, o' course," Hagrid said, sitting back down. "An' thumpin' good 'un's, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a little. With relatives like Lily an' James, what else could yeh two be? An' I reckon it's about time yeh read yer letters." He pulled out two envelopes and I took mine and read the flowing green words:

_Miss C. Dursley_

_The Floor_

_Hut-on-the-Rock_

_The Sea_

I pulled the letter out and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Dursley,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Questions exploded in my head, but Harry beat me to it and asked "What does it mean, they await our owl?" Hagrid smacked his forehead.

"Gallopin' Gargoyles, that reminds me," he said and rummaged through his pockets until he pulled out a live, ruffled-looking owl.

_Poor owl, _I thought as I watched Hagrid scribble a note, which Harry and I could read upside down:

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_Given Harry and Celina their letters._

_Taking them to buy their things tomorrow._

_Weather's horrible. Hope you're well._

_Hagrid_

He strode over to the window and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he walked back to the couch and sat down as if he had just answered the telephone. Harry realised that our mouths were hanging open and he pushed mine shut.

"Where was I?" Before Hagrid could answer his own question, Dad stepped forwards into the shimmering light of the fire.

"They're not going," he said.

"I'd like teh see a great Muggle like yeh stop 'em," Hagrid grunted.

"A what?" Harry said curiously.

"Non-magic people," Hagrid explained. "An' it's your bad luck you grew up in the biggest family o' Muggles I ever laid eyes on. Yeh too, Celina, I certainly didn't expect yeh to be magical."

"We swore when we took the boy in we'd put a stop to all this rubbish!" Dad said and I knew that I was seeing the horrible side of Dad now, "swore we'd stamp it out of him!"

"You knew I was a wizard?" Harry yelled.

"Knew?" Mum shouted suddenly. "Knew? How could you not be one, my dratted sister being what she was! Oh, she got a letter just like that and went off to that - that _school _every year and then came home, turning teacups into rats! I was the only one who saw what she really was - a freak!"

_That's harsh, _I thought. _What did Aunt Lily ever do to you?_

"But for my mother and father, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were so proud of having a witch in the family!" She stopped to take a breath.

"I think she's been wanting to say this for years," I whispered to a transfixed Harry. "Just look at her face!"

"Then she met that Potter at school, and they went and got married and had you, and then they got themselves blown up and we got landed with you! And now my daughter is a - a _freak _as well!" I gasped, tears threatening to fall. I couldn't believe she'd say that about her own daughter!

"Blown up?" said a very white Harry. "You told me and even Celina that they died in a car crash!"

"A car crash?" Hagrid roared and Mum, Dad and Dudley scuttled back into their corner. "A car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's outrageous! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story, when every kid in our world knows his name!"

"But why? What happened?" Harry said. Hagrid's face shifted from angry to anxious in a moment.

"I never expected this," he said in a low voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh an' Celina can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." He gave my family a dirty look and I refused to meet my mother's eyes.

"Well, it's best yeh two know as much as yeh can," he said. "Mind, I can' tell yeh everythin' - great myst'ry, parts of it." He sat down and gazed into the fire.

"It begins, I s'pose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don' know his name, Harry, when everyone in our world knows -"

"Who?"

"Well, I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it, Harry. No one does."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Celina, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went...well, bad. As bad as you can go. An' his name was - his name was -" Hagrid's mouth opened but nothing came out.

"Can you write his name down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah, can' spell it. Alrigh' - Voldemort." Hagrid shivered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry, Celina. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.

"Now, yer mum an' dad, Harry, were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before…probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side." I held in a snort at the reference.

"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em...maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up to the village you were livin' in, Harry, ten years ago on Halloween. You were just a year old. He came to yer house an' - an' he -" Hagrid blew his nose, sounding like a foghorn.

"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anywa…

"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

I looked at Harry and saw his bone white face, so I took his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. How horrible to have your parents die, yet you can't. I suddenly found myself wishing that Mum and Dad had told Harry all this when he was younger; he might not have understood most of it, but at least it would've softened the blow for now.

"Took yeh from the ruined house myself," Hagrid said, watching him sadly. "Brought yeh to this lot..."

"Load of old tosh," Dad said suddenly. Harry and I jumped; we had forgotten about Mum, Dad and Dudley. "Now you listen here, boy - I accept there's something strange about you - nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them, in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"

"Dad!" I yelled. "How can you be so cruel?" Hagrid leapt up and pointed the pink umbrella at Dad.

"I'm warnin' yeh Dursley - one more word..." I'm pretty sure that the threat of being skewered on the end of a pink umbrella, wielded by a giant man, was enough to shut Dad up and I was right.

"But what happened to Vol - sorry, You-Know-Who?" I asked.

"Good question, Celina. Disappeared. Vanished the night he tried ter kill yeh, Harry. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see - he was gettin' so powerful, why'd he go? Some say he died - codswallop in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human in him to die. Some think he's just out there, bidin' his time, but I don' believe it. People who were on his side came back ter ours. Don' think they coulda done if he was comin' back."

I saw Hagrid's eyes blazing with respect and warmth, but Harry and I felt the same way; how could we be magical? If Harry was a wizard, how come Mum and Dad could bully him? How come Dudley could kick him around? And if I was a witch, how come Piers could continue to annoy me without anything happening?

"Hagrid, I think you've made a mistake," Harry said. "I don't think I can be a wizard. And I doubt Celina's a witch." To our surprise, Hagrid chuckled.

"Sure yeh're not a witch and a wizard? Never made things happen when yeh were angry orsad?" Now that I come to think of it, strange things had happened around Harry, and even around me - the jumper, the boa constrictor, the school roofs...

"But if I'm a witch, how is my brother not a wizard?" I said, pointing to a cowering Dudley. Mum whimpered, probably at the thought of both her children being magical, and hugged Dudley tighter to her.

"Good question," Hagrid frowned. "Truth is, I'm not that sure. But it has happened before - yer aunt was a witch, an' a powerful one too, an' look at yer mum - no magic."

"And good riddance," Dad whispered. I saw something flit across Mum's face, but the expression was gone as quickly as it had come. Harry, finally convinced, looked up at Hagrid, and the giant beamed back.

"See?" Hagrid said. "Harry Potter not a wizard...an' his cousin, Celina Dursley, not a witch...yeh two'll be righ' famous at Hogwarts."

"Haven't I told you they're not going?" Dad hissed. "They're going to Stonewall High and they'll be grateful for it. I've read their letters, and they need all sorts of rubbish - spellbooks and wands and -"

"If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop 'em," Hagrid said. "Stop Lily an' James' son an' niece goin' ter Hogwarts? Yer mad! Their names have been down ever since they were born! They're off ter the finest school o' witchcraft an' wizardry in the world an' they'll be under the greatest headmaster there, Albus Dumbledore -"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!" Dad roared.

"He's crossed the line," I whispered as Hagrid waved his umbrella around.

"NEVER - INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!" he thundered and pointed his umbrella at Dudley. A flash of violet light and a crack later, my brother was running around the room, howling and clutching his bottom, where a curly pig ail was sticking out. Dad yelled and pulled Mum and Dudley into the next room, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Shouldn'ta done that," Hagrid said. "I meant to turn him into a pig, but I guess he was too much like one for it ter work." He looked at us.

"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts, yeh two" he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."

"We won't!" I said, grinning like mad. "That was bloody brilliant!" Harry didn't smile.

"Why aren't you allowed to do magic?" he asked Hagrid.

"Oh, well, I was at Hogwarts meself, but I - I got expelled. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore.

"Why were you expelled?" I said.

"It's getting late, and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," Hagrid said loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, gotta get yer books an' everythin'." He took of his coat and threw it at us, covering the both of us.

"Yeh two can kip under that. An' don't mind if it wriggles - I think there's a couple o' dormice in the pockets."

**Ok, a lot of Hagrid's lines will seem similar, but when it comes to his style of speech, there's not much I can do about it. Just so you know...**

**Oh, and apps are still open, I really need a crush by chapter 4 or I'll just let anyone who's reviewed make him up (it'd be good to have more than one entry, so one'll be the hopeless, popular boy crush and when it fails, Celina can fall back into the other one's arms, the one who's always liked her, so be sure to tell me which one you submit!). **

**But anyway, thanks to the three submissions! I will include all your characters, so don't be upset if your character doesn't appear as a major one!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

I woke up the next morning under a giant black coat, next to my cousin. I could tell that he wasn't asleep because of his breathing.

_Tap tap tap._

I looked over to the window and jumped when I saw an owl. So it _hadn't_ been a dream!

"It was a dream," I heard Harry mutter to himself. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me and Celina that we were going to a school for witches and wizards. When I open my eyes, I'll be in Celina's room with her." I raised an eyebrow, then remembered that he couldn't see that.

_Tap tap tap_.

"And that's Aunt Petunia coming to wake me up," he murmured.

"Silly Harry," I giggled. "Open your eyes!" He opened his eyes, sat up and gasped when he saw the owl.

"It wasn't a dream!" he said happily. "We're going to Hogwarts!" He hugged me tightly and I grinned. We looked at the couch and saw Hagrid fast asleep, snoring loudly. The owl tapped on the window again and Harry got up and went over to open it.

"Hey, don't do that!" I said as the owl flew over and attacked the coat still on me. I tried to wave it away but it pecked my hand and continued savaging the coat.

"Hagrid!" Harry said. "There's an owl -"

"Pay him," Hagrid grunted.

"What?" I said.

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper," Hagrid said. "Check the pockets." Hagrid's coat seemed to be nothing but pockets, which I learnt as I rummaged through them. I pulled out an assortment of items, including keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags and an assortment of coins.

"Give him five Knuts," Hagrid said.

"Knuts?" I said in confusion.

"The little bronze ones." I counted out five bronze coins and Harry put them in the pouch that the owl offered, tied on its leg. Hagrid yawned and sat up, stretching.

"Best be off Harry, Celina, we gotta go ter London an' buy all yer books an' stuff."

Harry was turning over the coins and examining them, when I saw his face shift.

"Hagrid," he said slowly, "how exactly are we going to pay for our stuff? You heard Uncle Vernon, he won't pay for me and Celina to learn magic."

"Don' worry 'bout that," Hagrid said as he pulled his boots on. "D'you think yer parents didn't leave yeh anythin'? Next stop fer is is Gringotts, wizard's bank. Have a sausage, yeh two, they're not half bad, and I wouldn't say no ter a bit o' birthday cake either." I didn't want to eat; I was too worried about money. Sure, Harry apparently had money from my aunt and uncle, but I knew that Mum and Dad wouldn't support me, so I had nothing to buy my stuff with.

"Wizards have banks?" Harry said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."

"_Goblins_?" I exclaimed as Harry dropped his sausage.

"Yeah, so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it. Never mess with goblins. Safest place ter keep anythin', except fer Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Hogwarts business fer Dumbledore. He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him - knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'? Come on, then." Hagrid led us out onto the rock, where the sun was shining brightly.

"How'd you get here?" I asked, looking for another boat or anything to show me how Hagrid made it here.

"Flew."

"_Flew_?" Harry and I exclaimed together.

"Yeah, but we'll go back in this. Not s'posed ter use magic now that I've got yeh two." We all settled into the boat, Harry and I trying to imagine Hagrid flying.

"Seems a shame ter row, though," Hagrid said, looking at us out of the corner of his eyes. "If I was ter - er - speed things up, yeh two wouldn't mind not mentionin' anythin' at Hogwarts?"

"We won't say a thing," Harry and I promised together. Hagrid took out his umbrella, tapped the side of the boat and we sped off for the mainland.

"How are Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley going to get back?" Harry whispered to me.

"Who cares?" I shrugged. "I love them, but they need to chill out. Maybe a little session there will teach them a lesson."

"You're cruel, you know that?" he grinned and punched me playfully. Hagrid opened up his newspaper but I could see his eyes crinkling in a smile.

"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.

"Spells - enchantments," Hagrid answered. "They say there's dragons guarding the high-security vaults."

_First goblins, now dragons! _I thought. _What next, unicorns and centaurs?_

"And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is deep under London, see. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage to get yer hands on summat." While Hagrid read his newspaper, Harry and I sat, lost in our thoughts.

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry blurted out and I grinned to myself; he just couldn't stop himself!

"'Course," Hagrid said. "They wanted Dumbledore ter be minister but he didn't want ter leave Hogwarts. So ol' Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if there ever was one."

"Reminds me of our government," I said to Harry. I didn't know much about it and I found it boring, but when you lived with my mum and dad, you couldn't help but pick up a few things, especially when your mother was as nosy as mine.

"He knows that everyone really wanted Dumbledore fer minister, so he pelts Dumbledore with owls askin' fer advice every mornin'."

"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?" I asked.

'Well, their main job is ter keep it from Muggles that witches and wizards exist."

"Why?" Harry said.

"Why?" I snorted. "Harry, you've lived with us for the past ten years!"

"Why?" Hagrid said, not hearing what I said. "Blimey Harry, they'd be pesterin' us fer answers to their problems! Nah, we're best left alone."

"There's that too," I said with a shrug. The boat bumped into the harbour wall and Hagrid folded his newspaper up as he walked up the stone steps, me and Harry clambering up behind him.

People kept staring at Hagrid as we passed; not that I could blame them. He was twice the size of everyone and kept pointing at ordinary Muggle things and saying "See that Harry? Celina? See the things those Muggles dream up?"

"Hagrid," Harry panted, "did you say that there were _dragons _at Gringotts?"

"So they say," Hagrid replied. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."

"You want a dragon?" I said in amazement.

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid. Here we go." We had reached the station and Hagrid let me and Harry handle the money for three tickets for a train that left in five minutes, as he wasn't that good with Muggle money,

If I thought that people stared a lot when we were on the streets, that was nothing. Especially when Hagrid took out something that looked like a canary yellow tent and started knitting.

"Still got yer letters?" Hagrid asked. Harry and I nodded. "Good, there's a list of things yeh'll need in there." I took out my envelope and pulled out a piece of parchment that I hadn't noticed before. Harry leaned over my shoulder and we read the letter silently together:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_UNIFORM_

_First-year students will require:_

_1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags_

_COURSE BOOKS_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble_

_OTHER EQUIPMENT_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set of glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope set_

_1 brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry said.

"If yeh know where ter go," Hagrid replied and I raised an eyebrow. I'd been to London heaps of times and I'd never seen any sort of shop that looked like it sold wizard supplies.

I think that I was the only normal-looking one out of us: Harry looked lost (no surprise, he'd never been to London before) and Hagrid was complaining that the trains were too slow and their seats too small.

"I dunno how these Muggles manage without magic," he said as he led us up a broken-down escalator.

We passed a variety of stores: hamburger restaurants and music stores, book shops and cinemas, but nothing looked like it sold anything remotely magical.

"D'you think there really are wizarding shops and stuff?" Harry whispered to me. "Or are my aunt and uncle just cooking up a joke?"

"They don't have any imagination," I whispered back and we both snorted quietly. If it wasn't for the fact that my family had no imagination, I'd believe that this was all a big joke too. But there was something about Hagrid that just made you trust him.

"This is it," Hagrid finally said, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub and I was sure that I would have completely missed it if Hagrid hadn't pointed it out. I had the weirdest feeling that only Harry, Hagrid and I could see it but before I could point it out, Hagrid steered me and Harry into the building.

"For a famous place, it's pretty shabby," I said to Harry and he nodded. I looked around at all the people - there were a few old ladies drinking sherry and a small man wearing a top hat was talking to the bald, wrinkled and toothless bartender. The buzz of chatter stopped and everyone waved at Hagrid; I got the impression that he was well-known here.

"The usual, Hagrid?" the bartender asked, reaching for a glass.

"Not today Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," Hagrid said, clapping our shoulders and nearly forcing us into the floor.

"Good Lord - is it - it can't be!" the bartender exclaimed. The bar had gone silent and one of the ladies hadn't realised that her pipe had gone out.

"Bless my soul - it's Harry Potter," the bartender said, coming out from around the bench to shake my cousin's hand. "Such an honour...Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back." There was the sound of chairs scraping and suddenly everyone was pushing for a glimpse of a very overwhelmed Harry.

"Doris Crockford, Mr Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"So proud, Mr Potter, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand - all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Mr Potter, just delighted, Dedalus Diggle's the name."

"I remember you!" Harry said to the man. "You bowed to me and Celina once in a shop!"

"I don't think he was bowing to me," I hissed.

"He remembers!" Dedalus said, his top hat falling off in excitement. "Did you hear that? He remembers!" I stood back next to Hagrid, my head reeling as Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand yet again. A pale young man came forward nervously, his eye twitching.

"Professor Quirrell!" Hagrid said. "Harry, Celina, Professor Quirrell will be one of your Hogwarts teachers."

"P-P-Potter," Professor Quirrell stuttered, "c-c-can't t-tell you h-how p-pleased I am t-to meet y-you. A-A-And you too, m-miss." He gave me a weird look. I didn't know what it was, but it sure didn't make me feel good.

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked.

"D-Defence Against the D-Dark Arts," Professor Quirrell said, sounding like he didn't want to think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll b-be g-getting all y-your equipment, I suppose? I've g-g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." I saw him shiver and I wondered why he taught Defence if he was such a coward.

Ten minutes later, Hagrid finally managed to get me and Harry out of there.

"Must get on, lots ter buy. Come on Harry, Celina." Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time and then we hurried out through the back door and out into a small, walled courtyard, with nothing but a few bins. Hagrid grinned at Harry.

"Told yeh, didn't I?' Told yeh yeh were famous. Even Professor Quirrel was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind, he's always tremblin'."

"Was he always that nervous?" I asked.

"Nah," Hagrid answered. "He was fine 'til he took a year off to get some firsthand experience...they say he met vampires in the Black Forest and had a run-in with a hag. Never bin the same since. Now, where's me umbrella?" My head was swimming as Hagrid fished out his umbrella.

"Three up...two across..." he muttered. "Right, stand back yeh two." He tapped a brick three times with his umbrella, creating a hole, and Harry and I gaped as it gradually grew bigger.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Hagrid said, grinning at our astonished faces. We stepped through the archway and Harry and I turned to see the archway shrinking behind us. I saw a shine out of the corner of my eye and I looked at a stack of cauldrons outside a shop. The sign hanging on the shop said _Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible_.

"Yeah, yeh'll both be needin' one," Hagrid said, following my gaze. "But first we gotta get yer money."

_You mean _Harry's _money, _I thought sadly.

Harry and I turned our heads in every direction, looking around the street. I wished I could clone myself – there was so much to see!

**HPCD**

An hour later, Harry and I had bought nearly everything we needed for Hogwarts, except for one thing – our wands! My fears about money were quelled when Harry had announced that he was buying my stuff as well and squashed my protests.

We'd just exited Eeylops Owl Emporium, where Hagrid took it upon himself to buy Harry a snowy owl for his birthday. When my cousin saw me looking wistfully at a small black cat, he slipped a few Galleons into my hand and I jumped.

"Harry!" I exclaimed. "No – I really couldn't – you've already bought me all my school stuff –"

"I insist," he said firmly. "Just think of it as eleven years' worth of birthday presents from me."

"Harry, the cards were enough," I said weakly – every year, we'd exchanged birthday cards that we'd made by ourselves.

"If you won't buy it, I'll buy it," Harry said triumphantly and I had no choice but to buy the cat. We left the Emporium a few minutes later, me clutching a cat carrier with the black kitten, kitten food and a box of treats and Harry with his snowy owl in a cage and a box of Owl Treats. Harry kept stammering his thanks to Hagrid for the owl over and over again.

"Careful, you'll turn into Quirrell junior," I teased and Harry mock-glared at me.

"I'll take your cat back," he warned and I pouted as I clutched the carrier close to me.

"Right, just yer wands left now," Hagrid announced and Harry and I exchanged excited looks – this was what we'd been looking forward to most of all!

We stopped outside a shabby-looking shop with peeling golden letters above it. They read, _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. _In the window, we could see a wand on a dusty purple cushion.

As Hagrid pushed the door open and entered with me and Harry, a small bell tinkled. Looking around, I saw that it was a small shop with one chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. There was one other person here: a blonde girl about my age. When she turned, I saw twinkling green eyes in her pale face.

"Hi," I said cautiously; after the blond boy we met in the robe shop, I wasn't sure what this girl was like.

"Hey there," she winked. "I'm Katerina Greengrass, but call me Kat. Who are you?"

"Celina," I said as we shook hands. "Celina Dursley."

"Can't say I've heard that name before," Kat frowned, releasing my hand. Just as I began to worry, her face relaxed into a smile. "You must be alright then!" I frowned in confusion and she elaborated.

"My family's one of those pure-blood families. It means they don't approve of Muggle-borns. But personally," she shrugged, "I don't get the big fuss. Most of the pure-bloods are rotten." My face split into a grin; this girl was definitely better than the boy! I mean, he hadn't insulted me or anything but I got the feeling that he didn't really like me. Behind Kat, I could see Hagrid smiling.

"So, what's your name?" Kat said to Harry.

"Harry – Harry Potter." Kat started but didn't say anything and her eyes flew to Harry's forehead. Harry looked down uncomfortably.

"Oh, sorry! Where are my manners?" Kat said and shook Harry's hand. "Kat Greengrass, at your service. But call me Katerina in front of my family, they think I'm a perfect little angel. Are you like his best friend or something?" she added to me.

"Cousin," I said. "I have a twin brother, Dudley, but he's not magical. My mum and dad hate anything magical."

"Touch luck," Kat winced. "If I brought one tiny Muggle thing home, my parents would probably exorcise the whole house." I raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"Good afternoon," a voice said, making Harry, Kat and I jump. A loud crunching noise told us that Hagrid had jumped too, right off the chair. In front of us was an old man with white hair and shining eyes

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Hello." Harry's voice sounded just as awkward as mine. Kat stepped forwards and bowed slightly, grimacing at me as she straightened up.

"Ah yes, I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter." The man then turned to Kat. "And young Katerina Greengrass too." He made a small bow in her direction and then looked at me. "I don't believe I know you, Miss –?"

"Celina Dursley," I said. Mr Ollivander looked back at Harry.

"You have your mother's eyes," he said to my cousin and Harry looked distinctly uncomfortable. "It seems like yesterday that she was in here, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches in length, willow, swishy. Excellent for Charms." He was moving closer to Harry, who I saw was looking more and more uncomfortable. Kat had a 'what-the-heck?' expression on her face.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a pliable mahogany wand, very good for Transfiguration. Well, I say he favoured it – it's the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr Ollivander was so close to Harry that their noses were almost touching and I took an unconscious step backwards.

"And that's where…" Mr Ollivander reached out and touched Harry's scar and I saw Kat mouth the words, "Creepy much?"

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," the wandmaker said. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Very powerful wand, and in the wrong hands…if only I'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do…" By now, Kat and I were looking a little frightened and Harry wasn't that far behind. He then spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus Hagrid! How wonderful to see you again! Oak, sixteen inches, bendy, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir, it was," Hagrid agreed.

"Good wand. But they snapped it in half when you were expelled?" Mr Ollivander suddenly looked stern. Kat looked a question at me and I shrugged; her guess was as good as mine.

"Er – yes, sir, they did. But I've still got the pieces."

"I hope you don't _use _them?" Mr Ollivander's voice sounded sharp.

"No, sir." But I couldn't help noticing that Hagrid looked shifty as he said this and I narrowed my eyes thoughtfully at the pink umbrella he was holding; his grip had tightened around it as he spoke.

"Well now, let's see." Mr Ollivander pulled out three tape measures and turned to Kat. "Which arm is your wand arm, Miss Greengrass?"

"My left," Kat answered. Mr Ollivander measured her left arm from shoulder to finger and then he left it to turn to Harry. It continued to measure Kat, who looked like she was trying not to giggle

"What arm is your wand arm, Mr Potter?"

"Er – my right," Harry answered. After measuring Harry's arm and letting the second tape measure take over, he turned to me with the third.

"My right," I said before he could ask. He smiled and started measuring, before turning towards the shelves and taking down boxes. As he did, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a powerful magical substance as a wand core. We use unicorn tail hairs, phoenix feathers and dragon heartstrings. No two wands are the same, just as no two animals are the same. And you will never get as good results with another wizard's wand as with your own." I got the feeling that he was saying this for Harry's and my benefit; Kat looked like she already knew all of this. She suddenly sneezed as the tape measure flitted between her nostrils and Mr Ollivander looked at it.

"That's enough, all of you," he said and the three tape measures fell to the ground. He then opened a box and took out the wand, presenting it to Kat. "Beechwood and dragon heartstring, nine inches. Flexible." Kat took it and swallowed as she waved it, but nothing happened. Mr Ollivander snatched it and gave it to me, but nothing. The same thing happened to Harry.

When Kat reached her third wand, she got lucky; as she waved it, a shower of silver lit up the room. Harry and I clapped as Mr Ollivander took it and said, "Excellent, Miss Greengrass! Ash and dragon heartstring…excellent…" After wrapping it up, he gave it to her in exchange for seven Galleons and then Kat left the shop with a, "See you on the train!"

"She seems nice," Harry commented to me.

"Well, yeh be careful," Hagrid warned and I looked at him in confusion. "Those Greengrasses are bad news."

"But Kat seems different," I protested.

"Well, yeh get a black sheep in ev'ry family," Hagrid shrugged.

Ten minutes later, I'd finally found my match: rosewood and unicorn hair, twelve and a quarter inches long. Harry handed over the Galleons for my wand and I clutched the box close to my chest, thinking, _I've finally got a magic wand!_

Poor Harry went through wand after wand and still couldn't find a match. Sitting on the chair that Hagrid had vacated, my head drooped and I fell into a light doze. It felt like a few seconds later when I saw shaken awake by Hagrid, who said that Harry had found his wand.

_About time, _I yawned, stretching and trying to pat my curls down. We left the shop and I noticed Harry looking a little guilty about something, though I didn't really care at the moment; I was still trying to shake the sleep out of my eyes.

Neither Harry nor I said anything as we made our way into the empty Leaky Cauldron, down the Muggle street and onto the Underground, ignoring the people who gawked at our funny packages. One little boy tried to touch my kitten and his mother pulled him away hurriedly as she caught sight of the owl next to the carrier. I only realised that we were at Paddington Station when Hagrid tapped me and Harry on the shoulders.

"Got time fer somethin' ter eat before yer train goes," he said to us and he bought us both hamburgers. Everything looked so…strange and ordinary, now that we were out of Diagon Alley.

"Yeh two alrigh'?" Hagrid asked. I shrugged and Harry took a bite of his hamburger thoughtfully.

"Everyone thinks I'm so…special," he finally said. "Everyone in the Leaky Cauldron…Quirrell…Ollivander…they all expect great things from me but I don't know the first thing about magic! I'm famous for something I don't even remember! I don't even know what happened the night Vol – sorry – I mean, the night my mum and dad died." As Hagrid leaned across the table with a smile, I squeezed Harry's hand sympathetically.

"Don' worry Harry, yeh and Celina'll learn fast enough. Everyone does, an' yeh've even got a friend now!"

"Kat," I smiled.

"Just be yerself. I know it's hard, yeh've been singled out of everyone, but yeh and Celina'll have a great time at Hogwarts – I did. I still do, s'matter of fact."

Hagrid helped the two of us onto the train that would take us home and handed us an envelope.

"Yer tickets fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September, King's Cross station…everythin's on yer tickets. Any problems, send me a letter with the owl, she'll know where ter find me. See yeh soon Harry, Celina."

As the train pulled away, Harry and I wanted to watch Hagrid until we couldn't see him anymore; we pushed ourselves up and peered out of the window but as I blinked, Hagrid disappeared.

**Hey guys! I'm SO sorry that I haven't updated in what feels like years, but I've been buried under homework and family issues that I'm not going to discuss where everyone can see. Anyway, I've got 10 OCs and I will really have to stop apps now. I'm sorry to a few of you but I've had to jiggle people around houses because of canon characters and all that, and I even had to get rid of Theodore Nott to fit someone in, coz Nott's barely used. Now, here's a very long AN:**

**MrsMalfoy's OC, Katerina Greengrass, made her debut here. Don't worry if your characters don't appear straight away, I'm trying to find openings for all of them.**

**Envy Her, I liked both of your characters but I didn't think it was fair for you to submit 2 OCs while everyone else had 1, so I chose Sam. I hope that's ok!**

**maruaderlove, I can't pair Harry with Celina because that's incest. They're cousins. Sorry!**

**justme91, I'm not homophobic but I really can't write slash. It's beyond my limited romance abilities.**

**Solaria daughter of Apollo, I dunno about Syrena being an Animagus. I mean, isn't that a little Mary Sue-ish? And besides, next thing you know, everyone will want their characters to be Animagi, and then Metamorphmagi, and then…yeah, you get my drift.**

**Randy Butternubs, I don't like the 'daughter of Sirius Black' thing all that much. I really don't know how I'd make all of that work and it seems a little clichéd to me. And Rosetta Riddle? Is she some relation to Voldemort? Do you have another father in mind for Melody, and another surname in mind for Rosetta?**

**Just a note, I've decided to put Celina in Hufflepuff. Why? Coz I feel that Hufflepuff's underused and I can imagine her there. Ok, here's the list of people and houses:**

**Isabel Garner – Ravenclaw**

**Katerina Greengrass – Hufflepuff **

**Aria Finnigan – Slytherin **

**Amami Miharu – Gryffindor **

**Melody Abellan – Gryffindor **

**Luke Lovegood – Ravenclaw **

**Syrena Delmont – Slytherin**

**Molly Thomson – Hufflepuff**

**Zachery Kyles – Ravenclaw**

**Sam Toricia – Slytherin **

**If any of you are unhappy about your OC's placement, tell me!**


	5. Chapter 5

August with my family wasn't exactly what you'd call fun. From receiving a morning hug from Mum, I'd gone to being ignored even when I was right in front of her. Dudley would run in the opposite direction whenever he saw me or Harry, and Dad would barely look at me anymore. So was it really any wonder that I grew a little depressed through the month?

"Don't worry, Lina," Harry said one night, his voice muffled by the thick textbook he was reading. "They'll come to their senses eventually and realise that they've got the best daughter they could ask for."

"Thanks, Harry," I smiled, my eyes feeling a little watery. You'd think that Harry was my twin brother, not Dudley! As if sensing my mood, my black kitten, Jet, jumped up and curled on the bed next to me, purring loudly.

"Hey, buddy," I said, stroking his fur. It might have been me, but I could've sworn that he smiled contentedly. When I voiced my thoughts to Harry, he gave me a weird look.

"Lina…cats don't smile," he said.

"Well, Jet does!" I protested hotly. "And what's with all this 'Lina' stuff?"

"What, don't you like it? 'Cause I'll stop if you want me too…"

"I never said I had a problem with it, I just want to know where you pulled the nickname out of!"

"Short for Celina." Harry refused to elaborate anymore, so I harrumphed, pulled out my wand and waved it, imagining sparks flying out of the end and wishing I knew an incantation to try.

Just then, Harry's new owl, who he had decided to call Hedwig, swooped in with another dead mouse present for Harry. It was really lucky that Mum didn't come into my – sorry, _our _– room anymore, or she'd have a fit.

"Why don't you give it to Jet?" Harry suggested to his owl, stroking her feathers. Hedwig flew over to my bed and dropped the mouse next to Jet, who gave a mew of appreciation and started mauling the mouse. Resigning myself to the fact that I still had a day left before I'd learn any magic, I pulled out a Transfiguration textbook and started to read, before bolting upright.

"What is it?" Harry looked over the top of his book.

"We're going to Hogwarts tomorrow," I said.

"And?" Harry did look a little brighter visibly.

"We haven't asked Mum and Dad for a ride to King's Cross!" Harry put down his book and made to follow me to the door, but I said, "I'd better do it, 'cause they're my mum and dad and all. They might feel more comfortable talking to me." Harry nodded his understanding and sank back down on his bed as I exited the room and descended the stairs. Mum and Dad were watching a quiz show and when I cleared my throat to let them know I was there, Dudley took one look at me and ran out of the room, howling.

"Well, really," I muttered and, in a louder voice, said, "Dad?" He grunted to show that he was listening.

"Um – Harry and I have to be at King's Cross tomorrow to catch the train to Hog – to our school." Another grunt.

"Do – do you think you could drive us there?" I took his grunt to mean yes.

"Thanks, Dad." I stepped forwards, gave him a hug and made to retreat upstairs when he spoke for the first time.

"Why the train? All the magic carpets broken down or something?"

"I don't know." Realising for the first time that I didn't even know where the train was, I took out my ticket. "It says that we have to catch the eleven o'clock train from platform nine and three quarters." Mum and Dad stared at me.

"Eleven o'clock train?"

"Platform nine and three quarters."

"Well, that's what it says here." I was growing increasingly uncomfortable.

"Barking, howling mad, all of them," Dad finally said. "Alright, we'll drive you and the boy to the station. Luckily, we're going in to London anyway or I wouldn't bother." I was shocked at how Dad was treating me, but I covered it up by saying, "Why're you going to London?"

"Got to have that darn tail removed before Dudders goes to Smeltings."

"Oh, Dud's tail." I nodded my understanding and decided to leave it at that before I screwed things up epically.

HPCD

The next morning, I was woken up at five o'clock when Harry jumped on my bed and practically shouted, "We're going to Hogwarts today!"

"Who cares 'bout Hogwarts, I want my beauty sleep," I mumbled and rolled over, when the full impact of the words hit me and I bolted upright. "We're going today!"

Half an hour later, I was dressed and everything was ready, but I was still pulling a brush through my hair.

"Sometimes I hate being a girl!" I muttered as I yanked at a knot. "Ow!"

"Makes me glad I'm a boy," Harry snickered.

"Oh shut up, Bird's Nest." That shut Harry up and I smirked in satisfaction as I finally managed to make my blonde curls look presentable by tying them up. I was looking forward to seeing Kat on the train and I was determined to make as many friends as possible. Kelly was my only real friend here; the other girls were only my friends because Dudley had threatened to beat them up if they weren't friends with me. Yeah, Dudley does care about me in his own weird way and I knew I'd miss him, no matter how annoying he was.

A few hours later, Mum, Dad and Dudley were up and we'd all piled into the car – well, after Mum bribed Dudley with a new video game to sit next to Harry – and we were on our way to King's Cross Station. I was so excited that I hadn't been able to eat breakfast and I regretted it when my stomach let out a loud grumble.

When we arrived, Mum and Dad piled our trunks into two trolleys and wheeled them into the station for us. I thought that Dad was being strangely nice to Harry but I understood the moment we stopped.

"Well, here we are," Dad said with a nasty grin. "Platforms nine and ten. They don't seem to have built yours, do they?" He was right; all that was between the two platforms was a ticket barrier.

"Have a nice term," Dad said with a nastier grin and he turned with Dudley and returned to the car, laughing loudly. Mum hesitated, gave me a quick hug and whispered, "The barrier!" Then she hurried off to the car and Dad drove off.

"Well, this sucks," Harry commented mock-cheerfully as we looked around for our platform. People around us were starting to stare at Hedwig – not that I could blame them. Harry was about to approach a guard to ask about the train when I murmured, "Hold on a minute." He stopped and looked at me.

"Mum whispered something about a barrier to me," I frowned, approaching the barrier between the platforms. "Maybe…" I reached out to touch it and my hand slid through it!

"Well, there's out answer!" I said happily and I wheeled my trolley around and pushed it through the barrier, my eyes squeezed shut. When I emerged on the other side, I opened my eyes and gasped.

There was a huge, red train belching smoke everywhere. A small sign next to me read _9 ¾. _Hundreds of people were milling around and the sound of hundreds of animals could be heard.

"This is amazing!" Harry exclaimed, materialising beside me and making me jump.

"Isn't it?" I beamed.

We pushed our trolleys through the crowd, looking for an empty compartment, and when we finally found one, Harry tried to lift his trunk into it and dropped it on his toes.

"Need a hand?" a voice behind us said as Harry let out a few choice words of my father's. We turned to see a pair of red-haired twins grinning at us identically.

"Yes, please," Harry said gratefully. Together, they pushed his trunk into the train and then turned to lift mine.

"Thanks," I said when our trunks were safely inside. Harry pushed aside his sweaty hair to reveal his lightning scar and the twins caught sight of it.

"Whoa!" one said. "Is that –"

"But it can't be!" the other exclaimed. "Are you –?" he added to Harry.

"What?"

"Harry Potter!" they chorused.

"Oh, him." Harry seemed bewildered. "Oh, yes, I am." I giggled at his reaction and the twins turned to me.

"Fred and George Weasley," one said, shaking my hand. "And you are?"

"Celina Dursley," I replied. "I'm his cousin." There was what seemed to be an eternity of silence, before a woman's voice called, "Fred! George!"

"Coming!" they shouted. Glancing at my cousin one last time, they hopped off the train and disappeared from sight.

"They seem…nice," Harry said as we opened the compartment door and sat down.

"Your face was priceless!" I snorted and he gave me a withering look. Looking out the window, I saw Fred and George with what looked like their family, and Harry and I listened to what they were saying.

"Ron, you have something on your nose," the woman said and seized the boy called Ron, took out a cloth and started rubbing at his nose.

"Geroff me, Mum!" Ron managed to shake out of his mother's grip.

"Aww, does Ickle Ronniekins have somefink on his nosie?" one of the twins teased.

"Shut up," Ron scowled.

"Where's Percy?" their mother asked.

"Dunno…"

"I'm here, Mother." The eldest boy strode out of the fog, his Hogwarts robes billowing out behind him. A red and gold badge was pinned to his chest and he struck me as a pompous sort of person.

"Can't stay long, Mother, the prefects have a compartment to themselves."

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" one of the twins (I think it was Fred) said in mock-surprise. "You should have told us!"

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," the other twin frowned. "Once –"

"Or twice –"

"A minute –"

"All summer –"

"Oh, shut up," Percy said, his scowl matching Ron's as I started laughing.

"Why does Percy get new robes?" a twin asked.

"Because he's a prefect," their mother said in a fond voice. "Ok, dear, have a good term – owl me when you're there." She turned to Fred and George.

"Now you behave yourselves, you two," she said sternly. "If I get one more owl telling me that you've – you've blown up a toilet or something –"

"We've never blown up a toilet, thanks for the idea, Mum!"

"Don't you dare! Don't even think of blowing up a toilet!"

"Ok, ok! Merlin!" I snorted at their response.

"Look after Ron, won't you?"

"Don't worry, Ickle Ronniekins is safe with us!"

"Shut up," Ron repeated.

"Hey Mum, guess who we met on the train?"

"We found this boy and girl who couldn't lift their trunks, so we helped and guess who the boy is?"

"Who?" the woman said.

"Harry Potter!" I then heard a little girl's voice.

"Oh Mum, can't I go on the train and see him, Mum, please!"

"Be quite Ginny, the poor boy isn't a zoo animal. Is he really, you two? How do you know?"

"We asked him and the scar was there!"

"Oh, that poor boy! He had nobody with him?"

"No, he had his cousin, she said her name was Celina Dursley or something." My cheeks grew warm at the mention of my name; well, it wasn't every day you eavesdropped on people and heard your name!

"Do you think Harry Potter remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?" one of the twins said.

"Don't you dare ask the poor boy that, Fred!" their mother reprimanded and I nodded sternly, even though they couldn't see us. "He doesn't need to be reminded of that!"

"Ok, keep your hair on!" A whistle suddenly sounded and Percy, the twins and Ron kissed their mother goodbye and hopped onto the train, and Ginny started to cry.

"Don't cry, Gin, we'll send you heaps of owls!"

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat!"

"Fred!"

"Just kidding, Mum!" I stopped looking then as I was overwhelmed by a sense of exhilaration. I was off to a special school, where I'd learn magic!

"This is it!" Harry said to me excitedly and I grinned widely. Just then, the compartment door opened and the youngest red-haired boy stood there – Ron, I think he was called.

"Can I sit here?" he asked. "There's nowhere else to sit." Harry nodded and Ron sat opposite me and Harry. I noticed that he had a smudge on his nose, but I didn't feel like pointing this out. He tried to avoid staring at us, so he looked out the window.

"Hey, Ron." Fred and George had appeared at the compartment door. "We're going to the middle of the train, Lee Jordan's got a huge tarantula there! Oh, hi Harry, Celina."

"Hey," I grinned and waved, and they disappeared. Ron started staring at Harry.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" he blurted out. Harry nodded uncomfortably.

"Oh – I thought it must've been one of Fred and George's jokes. And have you really got – you know –" Ron gestured at his forehead and Harry pulled aside his fringe to reveal the scar.

"So that's where –"

"Uh huh," Harry nodded.

"And you don't remember anything?" Ron was really starting to get on my nerves; who was he to come in here and start treating my cousin like a freak act?

"Well, I remember a flash of green light but not much else."

"Are all your family wizards?" I said roughly, trying to steer the conversation away from dangerous waters, and Harry gave me a grateful look.

"Well, Mum's got a second cousin, he works as an accountant, but he never talks to us because we're magical and he's not," Ron replied. A vivid image of my parents flashed in my mind.

"So you must know loads of magic already!" Harry said.

"No, not really." Ron looked uncomfortable. "But I heard you had to live with Muggles. What are they like? Are Muggles horrible?" I gave him my frostiest look.

"Excuse me but I am Harry's cousin and a month ago, I was one of those 'horrible Muggles'," I said in the coldest voice I could muster. I stood up abruptly.

"I'm going to find Kat," I said to Harry and he looked a little taken-aback by my chilly voice.

"Um, ok," he replied. I shut the compartment door behind me and made my way down the train, occasionally peering into compartments and thinking, _How dare he? _But now was my chance to make real friends, and I wasn't going to let someone like him stop me!

I came across a compartment with four people in it, chatting animatedly.

_This looks as good as any place to start, _I thought and opened the door.

"Hi," I smiled. "I'm Celina Dursley. Who are you?" They looked at me and smiled warmly.

"I'm Isabel Garner," a girl said. Her eyes reminded me of a deep ocean and her white-blonde hair nearly blinded me.

"I am Syrena Delmont!" the second girl shouted dramatically and threw her hands up in the air. I wasn't sure of what colour her hair was; was it dark blonde, or light brown? Her eyes reminded me of Harry's, though they were a lighter green.

"Don't mind her," a boy with dark brown hair said in amusement. "Zachery Kyles, at your service." He shook my hand and gestured to a blond boy, who was sketching something in a notebook. "This is Luke Lovegood." Luke looked up, beamed and waved, before returning to his drawing.

"Do you want to sit with us?" Isabel asked, gesturing to a seat beside hers. "We'll take anyone, as long as they're not mean."

"No thanks," I said. "I'm looking for my friend Kat, she's got blonde hair and green eyes. Any of you seen her?"

"I think she's further up the train," Luke said, still buried in his notebook. His voice carried the very slightest hint of dreaminess, I noticed. "I did see her a little earlier, I think."

"Thanks," I said and exited. A little further up, I heard raised voices.

"What do you mean, I can't sit here?" a boy's voice said indignantly. "You're my sister, Tricia! You're usually nice to me, what's happened to you?"

"You have to find your own friends!" A light-brown-haired boy stormed out of a compartment with his trunk and a brown owl, muttering something and nearly crashing into me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he gasped, trying to keep a hold of his owl's cage and his trunk at the same time.

"It's no biggie," I smiled. "I'm Celina Dursley, who are you?"

"Sam Toricia," the boy said. "Have you seen any empty compartments where I can sit?"

"No, sorry," I said, sorry that I couldn't help him. As he turned, a brainwave struck me. "But I know a compartment with a few people where you can sit!" Sam turned back and grinned happily at me.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"It's back there," I pointed. "There's four people in there, their names are Isabel, Syrena, Zachery and Luke. They did say that anyone could sit with them, so I'd say that there's your best bet."

"Thanks Celina, you're an angel," he beamed and squeezed past me. I grinned giddily and continued moving.

The next compartment I visited was occupied by three people; a girl and two boys, one of whom was black-skinned. I opened the door and introduced myself to them.

"I'm Aria Finnigan," the girl said. Her black hair fell in ringlets and I saw a mole under her grey eyes.

"And I'm her twin brother, Seamus," the boy next to her said. He looked nearly identical to her, except for short sandy hair, no mole and he was a boy. "This is Dean Thomas." The black boy waved with a smile.

"You're not from here, are you?" I frowned, not recognising the Finnigan twins' accents.

"Half-Irish," Seamus said and I nodded; that explained it!

"What, like Ireland? Where the leprechauns come from?" I grinned.

"That's the one," Aria smiled. "I love leprechauns." She shut her eyes and smiled dreamily.

"Well anyway, nice to meet you," I said and the four of us exchanged goodbyes, before I set off again. The next compartment I visited housed five giggling girls and I repeated the process of introducing myself.

"Amami Miharu," an Asian-looking girl smiled and shook my hand. "I'm from Japan but my parents moved here a few years ago. Good thing too, or I'd never have been accepted to Hogwarts!"

"I'm Melody Abellan," a pale, black-haired girl said. She also had an accent, though it definitely wasn't Irish or Japanese. She must've seen my concentration on my face, because she added, "I've lived in America for most of my life."

"Ah," I nodded, my confusion clearing up.

"Lavender Brown," a brunette girl beamed, shaking my hand. "These are Parvati and Padma Patil."

"More twins?" I grinned, shaking their hands. They looked at me in confusion.

"Well, I met Fred and George Weasley, and a few compartments down are Irish twins, Aria and Seamus Finnigan."

"Well, don't we feel special," Padma (or was it Parvati?) smiled. I bade them goodbye and I was in luck a few compartments up; Kat was in there, along with two girls and a large pile of sweets. One girl was a brunette and the other had strawberry-blonde hair, and the three appeared to be in an animated conversation. When Kat caught sight of me, her face lit up and she bounded to her feet, opened the door and pulled me inside.

"Celina! You made it!" she beamed. "Just in time, too, I thought you were lost!"

"I just made a few friends, that's all," I shrugged, sitting down next to her.

"You two, this is the girl I told you I met in the wand shop, Celina Dursley. Celina, this is Molly Thomson –" The strawberry-blonde girl smiled and waved, "- and Hermione Granger." The brunette shook my hand with a wide smile.

"They're both Muggle-born too, by the way," Kat told me and Molly and Hermione grinned happily. So did I; for some reason, I felt more at home with them. Probably because we were all Muggle-born and therefore knew about things that wizard-raised people didn't.

"Have a Chocolate Frog," Molly said, throwing one to me. "They're not real frogs but they have a cool card inside to collect. I've already got ten," she added happily.

"You just go out of your way to hang with Muggle-borns, don't you?" I snickered to Kat through a mouthful of chocolate. She smirked mysteriously.

"Well, like I told you, most of the pure-bloods are rotten anyway," she said. "You'll want to stay away from Draco Malfoy, he's a particularly nasty one. Our parents used to put us together for play dates." She made a face. "You'll know him when you see him, he looks like a blond Dracula."

"You know who Dracula is?" Hermione said happily, munching on a cake in the shape of a cauldron.

"Well, my parents don't know it but I like Muggles and I rebel against the pure-blood ways any time I can. But if I pretend to be a little angel, it lets me get away with more." Kat grinned. "Anyway, Dracula was a famous vampire, of course us wizards would know about him."

"He was real?" Molly gasped.

"Of course," Kat said in amusement. "Most of the Muggle legends are real. Bigfoot's nothing but a half-giant covered in white hair and exiled to the Himalayas by wizards, and werewolves are definitely real."

"Bigfoot," Molly murmured as Hermione and I gaped at Kat.

"Tell us more!" Hermione begged. "What about zombies?"

"Zombies?" Kat said. "They're just Inferi, which are dead bodies reanimated by a Dark Wizard. Nothing you'd want to meet in a dark alley." Her face twisted and suddenly the door opened to reveal a crying boy.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" he asked. When the four of us shook our heads, the boy let out a wail. "Oh, I keep losing him!"

"Do you want help looking for him?" Molly offered and the boy nodded furiously, so the four of us stood up and accompanied the boy out.

"I'm Celina," I said to him, passing him a Pumpkin Pasty I'd been about to eat. "This is Molly, Hermione and Katerina."

"Kat," Kat interrupted.

"I'm Neville," the boy sniffed. "Neville Longbottom."

"Longbottom?" Kat said interestedly. "You must be alright then, my family can't stand the Longbottoms. I'm a Greengrass," she added to Neville and he let out a weak chuckle as we pulled up to the compartment with the five girls. I stuck my head in and asked, "Hey, have any of you seen a toad? Neville here's lost his." The girls looked at Neville and Amami answered, "No, sorry. Good luck finding him, though!"

Down the train we went, stopping into compartments and asking people if they'd seen the toad.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" Molly asked Aria, Seamus and Dean. They hadn't. The next familiar compartment we encountered was with the two girls and boys, though Sam was now with them.

"Sorry, but we haven't seen him," Zachery said apologetically. Neville let out a small wail and I had an idea. It didn't seem like Neville had all that many friends, so…

"Hey Neville, you want to sit here while Moll, Kat, Hermione and I keep looking for your toad?" I asked and he nodded. "Is that ok?" I added to Isabel, Syrena, Luke, Zachery and Sam.

"Sure, that's fine!" Isabel said, nodding vigorously. "Welcome aboard, Neville!" Neville smiled happily and sat next to Syrena, who greeted him loudly.

"Don't mind her," Zachery grinned, quoting what he had said to me.

"You're meeeeeeeeeean, Zacheryyyyyyyyyy!" Syrena said to him, burying her face in her hands. "And Felix thinks so too!"

"Felix?" Kat frowned.

"My friend! He talks to me all the time! And so do Jenny and Paul! I hear their voices!"

"I think she's schizophrenic," Hermione frowned as the rest of us stared at the weird girl.

"I AM THE GREATEST THING SINCE TELEVISION!" Syrena announced dramatically, standing up on the seat and pointing at the sky. She then frowned at something below her. "No you're not, Jenny! You take that back!"

"We're going to go now," I said slowly and Hermione, Kat, Molly and I backed out, Neville shooting us pleading looks.

"That girl is weirder than my however-many-times-removed aunt Bellatrix," Kat shivered as we made our way down the train. "And Bellatrix was completely off her rocker. Still is, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if she was even madder the next time I saw her."

"Where is Bellatrix?" I asked.

"Azkaban," Kat grimaced. "The wizard prison. She was hauled in with a bunch of other Death Eaters – that's You-Know-Who's followers. Malfoy's aunt, Walburga, was quite fond of telling the story to us at pure-blood gatherings, before she died years ago."

"That is one screwed-up family you have there," Molly whistled and Kat laughed darkly.

"You have no idea," she said. "Hello, there's Harry!" We had just stopped in front of Harry and Ron's compartment, where Ron had just pulled out a wand.

"A Weasley?" Kat said in interest. "Well, your cousin sure knows how to pick his friends, doesn't he? The Weasleys are one of the best pure-blood families you'll come across!"

"Why?" I said sceptically. Ron didn't seem all that nice…

"They're what we call blood traitors," Kat explained. "It means that they don't have a problem with Muggles."

"But Ron was pretty rude to me before," I pointed out and Kat shrugged helplessly.

"Hey, I've never actually met 'em," she said and Hermione opened the door, prompting Harry and Ron to look up.

"Have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one," Hermione said, a little bossily in my opinion. Harry gave me a smile and a wave, which I returned.

"No, we've already told him that we haven't," Harry said but Hermione and Molly weren't listening anymore; instead, they were staring at the wand in Ron's hand, which had a strand of silver poking out.

"Oh, are you doing magic?" Molly asked in interest. "I've only seen magic once! Can you show us?" She and Hermione sat down opposite Ron eagerly, whose ears had turned red. Kat looked bored but even I was interested. Ron cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" Nothing happened.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" Hermione said sceptically. "It's not that good, is it? I've tried a few spells at home that I found in an extra book I bought for reading and they all worked for me. I never even knew that I was magical until I got my letter, my parents were ever so please and so was I! From what I've heard, this is the best school of magic there is and I've learned all my books off by heart, I do hope that will be enough! I'm Hermione Granger by the way and this is Molly Thomson and Katerina Greengrass, who are you two?" Molly, Kat and I were staring, open-mouthed, at Hermione; she didn't take a single breath!

"Ron Weasley," Ron finally muttered.

"Harry Potter," my cousin said. "Celina's cousin."

"Oh, you're Harry Potter?" Hermione said. "I know all about you, of course. I bought a few books for background reading and you're in _The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts _and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_!"

"Am I?" Harry said, looking overwhelmed. Not that I could blame him, really…

"Goodness, didn't you know? If I were famous, I'd have found out everything I could! Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been talking to Kat and she says that Gryffindor's by far the best, although Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff wouldn't be so bad. Anyway, we'd better continue looking for Neville's toad and I expect we'll be there soon, so you should change." With that, the four of us left.

"Hermione, I think you sent them into overload," I teased the brunette, who blushed.

"Oh, I hope I didn't upset them! All I wanted to do is make friends with them, and –"

"Are you like a vampire or something?" Molly said in an amused voice. "You hardly ever seem to need to breathe."

"Oh, relax, Hermione," I grinned, seeing her distressed face. "We're just teasing you." She relaxed and smiled at the three of us.

"Did you find Trevor?" Neville asked when we reached the compartment where he was.

"No, sorry," Kat grimaced. "He'll turn up eventually though, so don't worry too much."

"Oh, ok." Neville looked disappointed as he sank back down next to Syrena.

"How's he fitting in?" I smiled at Isabel, Syrena, Zachery, Luke and Sam.

"Just fine," Isabel beamed. Next to her, Syrena was talking to 'Jenny'.

"…no, Jen, blue is way better than pink! What's this about Criminal Minds? Did I just hear you diss it? 'Cause that's just not on, sister!"

"Still talking to herself?" Molly snickered and Zachery made a shrugging motion.

"I really think it is schizophrenia or possibly some other form of mental illness," Hermione said. "I've read about it in a Muggle medical book!"

"An _adult_ medical book?" I gasped, staring at Hermione along with Molly, Isabel and Sam.

"Yes. Why?" Hermione blushed.

"…what do you mean, Hercules is just a pretty boy? I'm never talking to you again, Jen!" And with that, Syrena turned away from Neville and crossed her arms.

"O-k," Kat said, backing out of the compartment. Molly, Hermione and I followed and we returned to our compartment.

"Hey Kat, what did Hermione mean by houses?" I asked once we were munching hours-old sweets.

"Oh, there are four houses at Hogwarts," Kat said through a mouth full of Liquorice Wands. "There's Gryffindor, the house of the brave and nobly idiotic, Ravenclaw, the house of the smart and nerdy, Slytherin, the house of the cunning, ambitious and evil and Hufflepuff, the house of the loyal and hard-working, where everyone who doesn't fit into the other three houses goes. Actually, that's just what my dad told me," she added with a shrug. "But," she reached for another Wand, "my whole family's been in Slytherin and I'm expected to go there too."

"Did you say that Slytherin's the house of evil?" I said in alarm.

"From what I've heard," Kat said. "Actually, 'evil' isn't the word my parents use to describe it."

Ten minutes later, we'd finally finished the sweets when we heard screaming out in the corridors and three boys smashed into the compartment.

"Oh, honestly!" Hermione huffed and she got up and left, no doubt to see where they'd come from.

"Oh great," Kat said in disgust, flicking a boy with her foot. With a start, I recognised him as the blond boy Harry and I had met in Diagon Alley.

"Katerina?" the boy said, once he'd sat up and slid into a seat.

"Draco," Kat said, her nose wrinkled. "What're you doing here?"

"That maniac rat of Weasley's bit Goyle!" Draco Malfoy said.

"Well, I'd say that's an improvement," Kat sniggered as we caught sight of the bleeding hand of one of Malfoy's lackeys. "Hey, Goyle! Hey, Crabbe!" Neither of them answered.

"Are those…Mudbloods?" Malfoy choked as he, Crabbe and Goyle stood up, staring at me and Molly.

"Don't use that word!" Kat snapped. I got the feeling that 'Mudblood' was an offensive word, though I wondered what it meant.

"What're you doing around Mudbloods, Katerina?" Malfoy staggered back towards the door. "I'll – I'll tell Mother and Father! I'll tell your parents!"

"You do that," Kat smirked and the three boys ran out. "Ah, dear Draco."

"What was Draco screaming about, Katerina?" I looked up and jumped; there was another Kat in the doorway!

"Weasley's rat bit him, Daphne," Kat said and Daphne struggled to conceal a snort.

"Why aren't you changed, Katerina? We'll be there soon!" And with that, Daphne left the compartment, just as Hermione reappeared.

"Was that your clone, Kat?" Molly gasped.

"Or your evil twin?" I suggested.

"Nothing as drastic as evil," Kat laughed. "That's my twin sister, Daphne Greengrass. I've also got another sister, Astoria. She's two years younger. Now let's get changed, Daph's right, we'll be there soon!" We pulled our robes on and I spent the rest of the trip smoothing them down and grinning like an idiot.

Soon, as the sky outside grew dark and the lamps inside the train flickered on, a message echoed through the train.

"_We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be collected for you."_

"We're nearly there!" I gasped and Molly, Hermione and I squealed loudly.

"You girls are nutcases," Kat said, shaking her head before joining in the squealing. As the train finally slowed down and stopped, the four of us bolted out and to the doors, where we piled out.

"Now where?" Molly said.

"I have no idea." Harry and Ron had suddenly popped up and I gripped Harry's hand and said, "We're here!"

"Yeah, we are, now can you please let go of my hand?" I blushed as I realised that I was crushing my cousin's hand painfully and released it.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Harry and I looked at each other.

"Hagrid!" we said together

"Hey, Harry! Hey, Celina!" We saw Hagrid waving over the tops of people's heads and we waved back.

"You know him?" Aria said in astonishment from next to Ron. "He looks terrifying!"

"Nah, he's harmless," I grinned as we made our way over.

"All firs' years here? Alrigh' follow me!" We followed Hagrid down a winding, narrow path and the dark shapes on either side of us suggested to me that there were trees.

"Yeh'll get yer first sight o' Hogwarts in a sec!" Hagrid called and as we turned a bend, everyone gasped, "Oooooh!"

The path opened out onto the shores of a vast, black lake and on the other side, a giant castle could be seen. Hagrid pointed to a fleet of boats waiting in the water and said, "No more'n four ter a boat!"

Kat, Molly, Hermione and I scrambled into a boat together. I saw Harry and Ron in a boat with Neville and Isabel, and Sam, Syrena, Zachery and Luke shared a boat too. Looking around, I scanned some of the groups of four: Amami, Melody, Parvati and Padma; and Padma, Aria, Seamus and Dean, to name two groups.

"Everyone in? Righ'…forward!" And with that, the boats started to glide forward.

"Wow, this is amazing!" I sighed.

"Isn't it?" Hermione beamed.

"Heads down!" Hagrid shouted as we approached a curtain of ivy. The four of us ducked our heads and we ended up in a sort of underground harbour after riding through a narrow tunnel. As we got out on the rocky shore, Hagrid began checking the boats.

"Oi! Whose toad is this?" Hagrid was holding up a toad and Neville exclaimed, "Trevor!" and collected it.

"I told you he'd turn up," Kat smiled at him and Neville smiled back.

We followed Hagrid up a passageway, his lantern the only source of light, and emerged near some wet grass in the shadow of the castle. Slipping, we made our way up to the large oak doors and crowded around them.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid said. "You still got your toad?" And with that, he raised his fist and knocked on the doors three times, leaving me with a squirming feeling in my gut.

**And that's another chapter done! Huh, now that I've completed chapter 4, I've got my inspiration back. Actually, that might be because recently, I've found that my least favourite chapter to write is Diagon Alley, for some reason.**

**And you guys, can you do me a huge favour? My little sister's written a story that she wants me to post and I've tidied it up and everything, so could you please review and tell her what you think of it? It's called 'The Black Cat' and she's so proud of it :)**

**Arina-Peachy: Thank you :) I would let you submit an OC but I've already got enough and it would be really unfair to others if I let someone else submit and not them when I've closed apps. But still, thank you and good luck with your story!**

** .Uchiha: Thanks, glad to know that I can fit Celina in so well :) And I'm glad about Izzy fitting into Ravenclaw. Would you like me to call her Isabel or Izzy in this story? **

**Envy Her: I'm so happy you're ok with it! I know what you mean about two ideas and not being able to choose, that happens all the time to me! And sure, you can draw some pictures. Maybe one of all the OCs together once they're brought into the story, including Celina? And if any readers and reviewers want to suggest scenes or characters for you to draw, would you be ok with that?**

**Solaria daughter of Apollo: Yeah, one of my friends, RedRoseMana, tried to make her second main character, Sophie Potter, an Animagus and it didn't turn out too well, even she admitted it to me. You can check it out if you want, it's the Prisoner of Azkaban. So I kinda wanted to avoid something like that, thanks for understanding! And I've turned Syrena's hair light brown and almost blonde because half the OCs submitted had blonde hair!**

**BXE, I've made Molly's hair strawberry blonde, for the same reason as above. I hope the two of you are ok with this!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

The doors swung open almost immediately to reveal a green-cloaked woman with grey hair in a tight bun.

_Definitely not someone to annoy, _I noted.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid announced.

"Thank you, Hagrid, I'll take them now," the woman said and I caught sight of the hall.

_Wow! My house could fit in here! _I thought incredulously. Professor McGonagall pulled the doors further open so that we could pour inside. I glanced around at the fiery torches and marble staircases and next to me, I could see Harry doing the same thing, while Hermione muttered things under her breath.

"Relax, Hermione!" Melody whispered behind me.

"Right, sorry," Hermione murmured.

To the right was a pair of golden double doors, through which I could hear the drone of hundreds of voices talking, and I guessed that the rest of the school must be there. I thought we would go in there but instead, Professor McGonagall showed us into a small chamber. We all crowded together and looked around nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "The feast will soon start but you must first be sorted into your houses. The Sorting Ceremony is extremely important because while at Hogwarts, your house will be your sort of family. You will attend classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitories and spend your free time in your house common room."

_I hope that Harry and I are Sorted into the same house! _I thought desperately. As if sensing my thoughts, Harry took my hand for a moment and squeezed it.

"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each has a noble history and has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While here, any triumphs will earn house points, while any rule-breaking will lose them. The house with the most points at the end of the year will be awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope that each one of you is a credit to your house." She glared at us sternly and I felt Neville gulp behind me.

"The Sorting Ceremony will begin in a few minutes, so I suggest that you all straighten yourselves up as much as you can while waiting." Her eyes travelled to Ron's nose, which was still smudged, and Neville's cloak; he'd somehow managed to do it up under his left ear. I saw Harry attempt to flatten his hair and I unconsciously tightened my ponytail.

"I will return to collect you when we are ready. Please wait quietly." With that, she left the chamber, and Harry swallowed nervously.

"How're we Sorted?" I heard Harry ask Ron.

"Dunno but Fred said that it was a painful test," Ron replied and my stomach tightened. A test? In front of everyone? But I didn't know anything yet! Next to me, Hermione was whispering spells as fast as she could, and Molly was fidgeting nervously.

"Oh relax, all we have to do is try on some silly old hat and it'll tell us which house we go to," Kat sighed.

"You're telling the truth?" I said. Kat gave me a pained look.

"I'm hurt, Celina!" she said. "Since when have I ever lied to you?"

"You've lied to me plenty of times, Katerina," her twin sister Daphne said and Kat grinned unashamedly. I suddenly heard a few screams behind us and I whirled and let out a small scream of my own.

Floating through the back wall were twenty or so pearly-white ghosts and they seemed to be arguing.

"Forgive and forget, I say," a fat monk said. "I think that we ought to give him another chance –"

"Dear Friar, we've given Peeves all the chances he deserves, wouldn't you say? He gives all of us ghosts a bad name and he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost with a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed us and he gave a comical jump. None of us answered him.

"New students!" the Friar smiled at us. "Just about to be Sorted?" A few of us nodded speechlessly.

"I hope to see you in my old house, Hufflepuff!" the Friar waved.

"I look forward to seeing all you new Gryffindors!" the ruff-and-tights ghost said.

"Move along, the Sorting's about to begin," Professor McGonagall's sharp voice said. One by one, the ghosts streamed out through the opposite wall. "Form a line and follow me," she added to us.

My legs as heavy as an elephant, I got in line behind Kat and in front of Aria and we followed Professor McGonagall out of the chamber and towards the double doors, which she pushed open. Harry and I gasped simultaneously upon seeing what was inside.

The hall's source of light came from thousands of floating candles. There were four long tables where the students sat and a fifth one at the top of the hall, where the staff were seated. Professor McGonagall led us up to it and we stopped, so that we were facing the students and our backs were to the teachers. Dotted around the hall were the shining, silvery ghosts and, to escape all the eyes staring at us, I looked up and my mouth fell slightly open. The ceiling was black with little pinpricks of light, just like the night sky outside.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside!" I heard Hermione whisper. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History!"

"What haven't you read?" Kat snorted.

"It's amazing!" Amami sighed from behind me and I nodded vigorously in agreement. As I looked down, I saw Professor McGonagall put down a stool and on top of that, a ragged, pointed, frayed wizard's hat. Mum would have fainted if she'd so much as seen it!

Soon, everyone was staring at the hat. A rip near the brim opened and the hat started to sing:

"_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

When the hat finished singing, it bowed to each of the four student tables, before becoming still again.

"I am going to _murder _Fred!" Ron hissed as everyone applauded and we joined in. "He kept going on about wrestling a troll!"

"Do you feel like you're trying to digest a large stone?" Molly whispered to me and I nodded; she'd just described exactly how I felt! I mean, sure trying on a hat was better than taking on a troll but still…in front of everyone? Couldn't we do this somewhere a little more…private?

"If only there was a house for those who felt sick," Harry moaned to me and I nodded in agreement.

"Most of you would go there," Kat pointed out.

"You don't seem nervous," I commented.

"Oh, I know _exactly _where I want to go," Kat said with an evil grin that made me gulp nervously.

"Kat…please don't grin like that," Molly said weakly. "It's scaring the hell out of me."

"Well, that's one good thing I got from my father," Kat said in satisfaction as Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a scroll of parchment, which she unrolled.

"When I call your name, you will come up here and sit on the stool to be Sorted," she said. "Abellan, Melody!" Melody gulped and she nervously walked up and sat on the stool. Professor McGonagall lowered the hat onto her head and a moment passed, before the hat opened its mouth and shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The far left table burst into cheers and as the ghost in the ruff and tights smiled at her, I saw Fred and George Weasley catcalling.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A small blonde girl with pigtails stumbled up. After a few moments:

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the far right cheered and Hannah scurried off to join them. As she sat down, the ghost of the Fat Friar waved happily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!" This time, it was the table second from the left that cheered as Terry joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"No way am I going there," Harry said. "I'm so not brave!"

"Yes you are," I said fiercely. "Melody and Lavender are scared too, I'm sure, but they made it to Gryffindor!"

"Bulstrode, Millicent!"

"SLYTHERIN!" As I observed the table second from the right, I thought that they looked like a very unpleasant bunch, though that may have been my imagination. I noticed Harry starting to look very sick now and I knew what he was thinking about; at school, he'd always been picked last in sport. Not because he was bad at it – in fact, he was one of the fastest people in our year – but because no one wanted my brother to think that they liked him.

"Harry, Dudley's not here," I whispered and he gave me a weak smile.

"Crabbe, Vincent!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Delmont, Syrena!"

"Good luck!" I heard Isabel murmur as Syrena staggered up and the hat was lowered onto her brown-blonde hair. After about half a minute or so:

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Well, that was…unexpected," Zachery commented from behind me.

"You'll still be her friend, right?" Sam said.

"Yeah, of course," Zachery said. "I just don't particularly like Slytherins…"

"It's ok, Zack, I know how you feel," Kat said quietly. "My parents were very pro-You-Know-Who as well."

"How did you know?" Zachery said in surprise.

"Your reaction to Slytherin," Kat said.

"Let's not go there with my family." Zachery's voice was harder than steel and I wondered how horrible his family was, to make him react like that.

"Dursley, Celina!" I started as I realised that it was my name being called and, at a prompt from Hermione, Molly and Kat, I made my shaky way up. On the way, I caught the gaze of a teacher with sallow skin, a hooked nose and greasy black hair. As my blue eyes met his cold black ones, I saw an intense hatred there and I almost tripped.

_What? _As the hat was lowered over my head, the blackness cut our eye contact and I waited.

"Hmm, not a bad mind here," a little voice said in my ear. "Quite intelligent, yes, oh and lots of loyalty too, I sense that. Definitely brave but not hot-headed. Not a lot of ambition here, though. Where should I put you?" I had absolutely no idea of where I should go, so I just waited patiently.

"I know the house for you…HUFFLEPUFF!" I took the hat off and made my way to the cheering Hufflepuff table, smiling at Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones when they moved over to make room for me. I caught Harry's eye and beamed widely, and Kat gave me a thumbs-up.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFEPUFF!" I clapped along with the rest of my new house.

"Finnigan, Aria!" I saw Seamus push his twin sister to get her moving.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Finnigan, Seamus!" It took a whole minute for the hat to shout, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Garner, Isabel!"

Luke gave her a gentle shove and she staggered up. After a few moments of being on her head, the hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!" I noticed Isabel's face when she made her way to the Ravenclaw table – it was relieved.

"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione full-on ran up to the stool and, not waiting for Professor McGonagall to lower the hat down, jammed it on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Hermione made a beeline for the Gryffindor table and I chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Greengrass, Daphne!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Greengrass, Katerina!" I crossed my fingers for my new friend and I counted that a minute had passed, before:

"HUFFLEPUFF!" A few people were shocked into silence before we started applauding our new member. I was a little alarmed – what was Kat going to think? – but she sat down right next to me and gave me a triumphant grin and a fist punch.

"Either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor," Kat grinned. "I was trying to think of which would annoy my family more but then I remember that you were here." I gave Kat a wide smile.

I started at the next name, William Kyles, and especially when a boy who looked like Zachery except for shorter hair strutted up and was placed in Slytherin.

"I didn't know Zack had a twin brother!" I frowned.

"Family can be a touchy issue for some of us," Kat said darkly.

"Kyles, Zachery!"

"RAVENCLAW!" Zachery walked triumphantly over to the Ravenclaws, where he and Isabel engaged in conversation.

When Neville was called, he tripped on his way up to the stool and the Hat took a few minutes to decide. When it finally declared him a Gryffindor, he ran off with the Hat still on his head and had to hurry back to give it to Morag MacDougal amidst a wave of laughter.

"I knew he was brave deep down," I smiled and Kat returned the smile.

"Lovegood, Lucas!" Luke smiled calmly and walked up, though I did notice a little bit of a tremble in his gait.

"RAVENCLAW!"

The second the hat touched Malfoy's greasy head, it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" and Malfoy strutted off to join his friends, looking very pleased with himself. I noticed him strike up a conversation with William Kyles immediately, while Syrena sidled away from them, a disgusted expression on her face. She caught my eye and she put her hands to her throat and mimed choking. I had to stifle my giggle behind my hand at that.

"Miharu, Amami!"

Amami walked up on trembling legs.

"GRYFFINDOR!" She happily made her way towards Melody and they beamed at each other and started talking, Lavender joining in after a moment.

"Parkinson, Pansy!" A pug-faced girl flounced up and I instantly felt an intense disliking of her, for some reason.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"She's a brat," Kat said with a wrinkled nose. "Trust me, I've met her."

"Which other pure-blood families are alright?" I asked.

"Well, the Potters were notorious blood traitors," Kat said, shocking me. "I mean, James Potter did marry a Muggle-born, Lily Evans."

"James Potter? Lily Evans? Are they ancestors of Harry's?" I frowned.

"They're his parents," Susan said with a weird look and I gaped.

"She's Muggle-born," Kat explained.

"Mum and Dad never told Harry anything about his parents!" I finally managed to get out.

"Why would they?" Justin Finch-Fletchley said.

"Never mind," I said quickly.

Padma Patil made it to Ravenclaw but her twin, Parvati, became a Gryffindor. Soon:

"Potter, Harry!" As Harry made his way up to the stool, whispers broke out through the hall like wildfire. After a few minutes on Harry's head, the hat finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" I noticed that Harry was receiving the loudest cheer yet and I hid a moan; I couldn't believe that Harry and I were to be separated for seven years!

Now there were only five people left. Dean Thomas, the black boy, made it to Gryffindor and now it was Molly's turn.

"Thomson, Molly!" I saw Molly walk up on shaking legs and collapse on the stool.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Kat and I cheered loudly as Molly staggered over and sat between me and Susan.

"I am never doing that again," she gasped.

"It's ok," I smiled, patting her sympathetically on the shoulder.

"Toricia, Samuel!" I leaned forward expectantly.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Sam, in _Slytherin_?" I said in shock. "He's one of the nicest people I've met!"

"Maybe he's cunning, or has a secret ambition," Justin suggested.

"Yeah…that'll be it," Molly said.

"Turpin, Lisa!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Weasley, Ronald!" Ron was the last one; I saw him walk up, his face slightly green, and he was Sorted into Gryffindor. Professor McGonagall picked up the stool and hat and, looking down at my plate, I only then realised how hungry I was. As I continued looking longingly at my empty plate, an old man with a long, silvery beard stood up and spread his arms wide, as if he was the happiest person alive just seeing us all here.

"Welcome! Welcome to Hogwarts!" he said. "Before we begin our magnificent feast, I would like to say a few words. Here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" He sat down and Molly and I exchanged looks.

"Is he…mad?" I said hesitantly.

"Of course he is," Kat grinned. "Roast chicken, anyone?"

Molly's and my mouths fell open. In front of us were dishes piled with just about anything you could think of: roast chicken, roast beef, pork chops, lamb chops, chips, steak, bacon, sausages, vegetables, gravy, tomato sauce, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes and, for some weird reason, mint humbugs.

Looking over at the Gryffindor table, I saw Harry piling his plate with everything except for the humbugs and tucking in, occasionally talking to people around him. I followed his example and filled up my plate with everything, even the humbugs, and dug in. It was delicious, far better than Mum's cooking! Oops, don't tell her I said that!

"Welcome to Hufflepuff!" the Fat Friar beamed at us. "I know you'll all fit in wonderfully!" I nodded through a mouthful of chicken and gravy and Kat muttered, "I knew Hufflepuff was a better choice than Gryffindor!"

"I hope you'll all be a credit to Hufflepuff!" an older girl said. "Slytherin's won the House Cup six years in a row!"

"Six years?" Hannah exclaimed. The girl nodded seriously.

"I mean, it'd be better if even Gryffindor or Ravenclaw won it for once!" she said.

"Now, now, that's not what Hufflepuff is about," the Friar said sternly and the girl returned to her food.

"Do any of you play Quidditch?" I looked at the speaker and blinked. It was a boy a few years older than me and he was drop dead gorgeous! Dark hair, grey eyes, strong cheekbones…I sighed softly to myself as my stomach squirmed.

"What's Quidditch?" Molly was stared at by half the people around us and she blushed. "I'm Muggle-born…"

"That's quite alright," the boy said and while he explained what Quidditch was, I just sat there and stared at him, occasionally putting a forkful of food in my mouth and chewing it slowly.

"…oh, I haven't introduced myself, have I?" the boy said. "I'm Cedric, Cedric Diggory."

"Cela – uh, Cellie – I mean, Celina Dursley," I managed to stammer out, shaking Cedric's hand. Kat shot me an evil grin and Molly was looking at me as if I'd grown an extra head.

"I'm Katerina Greengrass, better known as Kat," Kat eventually said and beamed around the table. "And strawberry-top over here's Molly Thomson."

"Strawberry-top?" Molly spluttered. "Why you –!"

"Ernie Macmillan," a boy interrupted pompously, shaking all of our hands.

"I'm Hannah Abbott," Hannah smiled.

"My name's Susan Bones," Susan said.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley," Justin told us. I glanced at the Fat Friar and saw him beaming approvingly, before I returned to staring at Cedric.

"Well, we've got a good haul this year," a boy said and we grinned at him. "Gabriel Truman, by the way. Hufflepuff's new male prefect."

Soon, the food disappeared and was replaced with desserts that made my mouth water. There was ice cream in every flavour I could ever imagine, apple pies, chocolate éclairs, rice pudding, Yorkshire pudding, trifle, jam doughnuts, treacle tart…the list went on.

"Oh my God," Molly kept murmuring under her breath, staring at the desserts as if she was in heaven. Kat was already piling apple pie and trifle onto her plate, a bored expression on her face.

"You don't seem all that surprised," I commented to her and she shrugged.

"You see magic once, you've seen it all," she said, shoving trifle into her mouth. The talk then turned to families.

"I'm Muggle-born," I said, though they already knew that. "My mum and dad don't like magic, and my twin brother's terrified of me now."

"Poor you," Cedric said sympathetically and my stomach felt light.

"I've got a twin too," Molly said and I rolled my eyes. So many twins! "She's not magical though, and she's so much better than me!"

"What do you mean?" Hannah said and Molly made a face.

"It was always 'Alice this,' and 'Alice that,' and 'Alice is so smart!' and 'Alice is so pretty!'" As Molly raved on, I noticed that her face grew malicious and angry. Susan possibly noticed this too, because she interrupted and said, "Well, you're magical and Alice isn't! Doesn't that count for something?" Molly stopped talking and an evil grin split her face.

"Yeah…I guess it does," she said and she stopped talking to eat some treacle tart.

"My family are pure-blood supremists," Kat said darkly, scowling at her pie. "Daphne's a perfect little princess and so's Astoria, and I have to pretend to be. They have no idea that I'm against them." She then started muttering things that had everyone around her sliding away slowly.

"I'm an only child," Cedric interjected smoothly, to break the awkwardness. "I love my parents but my dad's a bit of a boaster."

"What do you mean?" I said, trying to sound understanding. It must have worked, because Cedric shot me a dazzling smile that made me feel like I was floating before continuing.

"He keeps bragging to everyone about how good I supposedly am at everything."

"Wish my parents did that," Molly muttered darkly. "All about dear Alice…I'll show them…"

"Am I the only one here not showing murderous tendencies?" I joked and Kat and Molly glared at me as the others laughed.

"I'm a pure-blood," Susan said. "My auntie works in the Ministry of Magic."

"Really? Where does she work?" I said and then explained that Hagrid had told me and Harry a little about the Ministry, because everyone was giving me weird looks.

"She's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Susan said.

"She's one of the people who aren't complete nincompoops," Cedric said. "My dad told me so." I started giggling and had to quickly shove a jam doughnut into my mouth.

"My family's boring," Hannah said. "I'm a half-blood, there's not much more to say."

"I'm a pure-blood," Ernie said, a little boastfully I thought. "We can trace our ancestors back hundreds of years."

"Muggle-born," Justin told us. "My name was down for Eton before I got my letter."

"Eton?" I said. "Apparently that's one of the best schools in England!" Justin smiled and I thought that he was a little relieved that someone else knew what he was on about.

"Well, Hogwarts is better," he said and I nodded in furious agreement. "Where were you going to go?"

"Stonewall High." I made a face. "It's a local school, a little drab in my opinion. Harry was going to go there too, before we got our letters."

"You live with Harry Potter?" Hannah all but squealed. "Tell us about him!" Nearly everyone leaned forward expectantly.

"There's really not much to say," I said. "He's just a scrawny eleven year old midget with glasses and bad hair." Kat and Molly started sniggering and had to eat some dessert to cover it up.

"That's it?" Susan looked disappointed.

"My family are Muggles, remember," I said. "It's not like he could get into that much trouble, and I doubt he will here too." Little did I know how wrong those words were…

I looked up at the staff table and my eyes met the greasy-haired teacher's ones again. Again, I saw a flash of hatred, before he turned to talk to Professor Quirrell, who was still wearing his ridiculous turban.

"Hey, who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" I asked and Gabriel looked in the direction of my gaze.

"Professor Snape? You'll want to avoid him," he replied. "He blatantly favours his Slytherins and he hates the Gryffindors with a passion, so we tend to be a little better treated than the lions. Still…"

"He's up to his eyeballs in the Dark Arts, so I've heard!" the girl said. "He wants Quirrell's job, it's a well-known fact, but he's stuck with Potions instead!"

"Kerri!" Gabriel said. "Stop acting like a Gryffindor!"

"Sorry," Kerri grinned.

"Tell us more about the teachers!" Molly said.

"Well, our Head of House is Professor Sprout," Cedric said, gesturing to a small witch with curly grey hair. "She teaches Herbology and she's always bringing plants into the common room for us, so a lot of Hufflepuffs are really good at Herbology!"

"Professor McGonagall's Head of Gryffindor, she's the one that brought you in here," Kerri said. "She teaches Transfiguration and she's really strict, so don't muck up in her class!"

"Professor Flitwick's the Head of Ravenclaw and he teaches Charms." Gabriel singled out a tiny wizard, whose feet didn't even reach the ground. Upon seeing him, Kat, Molly and I burst into such a strong fit of giggles that we had to bury our faces in the table.

Just then, the desserts vanished and the silver-bearded wizard got to his feet again.

"Now that we have all been fed and watered, I have some start-of-term announcements," he said.

"That's Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster!" Kerri hissed.

"To all of you first years, you should know that the forest outside is forbidden to all students. I would also advise some of our older students to remember that too." I saw his eyes twinkle in the direction of the proudly-grinning Weasley twins.

"The caretaker, Mr Filch, has also requested for me to remind you that magic is forbidden in the corridors between classes.

"Quidditch trials will take place next week. If anyone is interested in playing, please contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, the third-floor corridor on the left hand side is out of bounds this year to anyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Kat, Molly and I laughed but we were three of the few that did.

"He's not serious, is he?" I frowned as I stopped laughing.

"He must be, he'd never joke about something like this," Gabriel said thoughtfully. "Mind you, I'd have liked a little hint as to why we're not allowed in there."

"Like if there's a man-eating animal or something?" Hannah said, her eyes wide.

"Exactly, Hannah," Gabriel nodded, making her smile.

"Hannah, that sounds strangely ominous," I said.

"Paranoid!" Kat coughed.

"I'm just saying!" I said.

"Don't worry Celina, I thought that too," Cedric said kindly, making butterflies explode in my stomach.

"Before we all go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore said and I snorted to myself as I noticed that some of the teachers' smiles looked painfully pasted in place. Dumbledore flicked his wand and long, golden ribbons trailed out and twisted into words.

"Everyone pick a tune and sing!" Dumbledore told us. And so we all bellowed:

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_For now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot."_

All of us finished singing at different times.

"What a cheerful school song," I giggled to the others after Kat, Molly and I had finished singing at a sort of monotone.

"You sound awful, Celina!" Ernie said when he'd finished.

"Thanks," I said dryly.

"You too, Kat and Molly!" Said girls gave him a withering look.

"Aww, leave the poor girls alone, Ernie," Gabriel teased and Kat, Molly, Hannah, Susan and I gave him scorching glares.

Soon, the only two people singing were the Weasley twins, who were singing to a slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their remaining lines with his wand.

"Ah, music!" he said as the twins finished. "A magic beyond anything we do here! And now, off to bed you trot!" Kat, Molly, Hannah, Susan, Ernie, Justin and I looked around in confusion as everyone started standing up.

"Where do we go?" I said.

"Follow me and Kerri," Gabriel told us. "We're the new prefects, so we've got to take you to the common room." We followed Gabriel and Kerri out of the Great Hall and down a flight of marble stairs, until we were underground.

"Uh, where are we going?" Kat asked.

"The cellar," Gabriel answered. "It's where our common room is."

"And it's also near the kitchens, just tickle the pear in the portrait of fruit and you'll be able to get in," Kerri added.

"Kerri! That's against the rules!" Gabriel reprimanded.

"Whoops," Kerri grinned.

Soon we stopped next to a pile of barrels, stacked neatly against the wall.

"Why are we next to a pile of barrels?" Susan voiced my thoughts.

"It's the entrance to the common room," Kerri winked. "We've got a very special system here. The other three houses have passwords but not us."

"So how do we get in?" Hannah said.

"Watch and learn," Gabriel said and took out his wand. "You go two barrels from the bottom and the middle of the second row." He gestured to the barrel he'd picked out. "Now, you have to tap it in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff. Watch closely." He tapped the barrel in a certain rhythm and, to our astonishment, a hole opened up, wide enough for us to crawl into.

"Wow!" Molly gasped and I was speechless.

"What happens if you get it wrong?" Justin asked.

"You get sprayed with vinegar," Kerri smirked. "Now, in you go." She and Gabriel helped us into the passageway and we finally made it to a door, which Ernie pushed open. We all tumbled into a room and when I finally managed to get a good look around, I gasped in amazement.

The room was low-ceilinged and it looked and smelled earthy. There were yellow and black hanging everywhere, along with yellow and black chairs and couches, a honey-coloured mantelpiece engraved with badgers and round windows which showed a night-time scene of rippling grass and dandelions. When I asked about how there could be a view underground, Gabriel answered, "The windows are enchanted to give us that view."

Looking around, I saw plants all over the common room; some were big and some were small; some were brightly-coloured and others were dull. Looking above the mantelpiece, I saw a portrait of a woman, looking both kind and proud at the same time. One thing was certain: I was going to love it here!

"Girls, your dormitory's through there and boys, yours is in there," Gabriel said, pointing out two circular doors in the common room walls. Us girls separated from the boys and made our way over to the door Gabriel pointed out. When we entered the dormitory, we looked around admiringly.

There were five four-poster beds with gold and black hangings and patchwork quilts. On the walls were copper lamps and hanging on the wall were what looked like copper bed-warmers. Our trunks were already at the end of our beds and I smiled as I saw that Jet had been let out and she was snoozing on my bed.

"This is amazing!" Hannah said happily and immediately crossed to her trunk to pull out her pyjamas and change. The rest of us followed suit and when I climbed into bed, Jet woke up and looked at me with bright blue eyes, before padding towards me, curling up next to my right arm and falling asleep again. Smiling happily, I closed the covers around my bed and my last thought before I fell asleep was of how awesome Hogwarts was.

**For all Kerri knows, Ravenclaw has a password too ;) Ah, my mum's best friend's son and his wife are having a baby today and I'm so excited! :D**

** .Uchiha: Yeah, last chapter was just an intro for all of them but most of them won't pop up all the time, since most of them aren't in Hufflepuff and this is from Celina's perspective and all that. I'll keep calling her Isabel in typing but her friends will call her Izzy. And thanks :)**

**Envy Her: Yeah, I got the link.**

**So people, send Envy Her picture ideas if you want them to be drawn, the link's in a review here!**

**CaptMacca: Sorry, submissions are closed, but if you just wanted to send in Daphne, I'll try and include her more, since she's a canon character and Kat's sister. And thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

You know that thought I had before I went to bed? I was right. Hogwarts was _amazing!_

There were over a hundred staircases that actually moved! I got the shock of my life the next day when us first years were making our way to breakfast and a staircase a few floors up moved just as an unaware Gryffindor first year was about to step onto it. He teetered on the edge, screaming, and his friend had to pull him back. Kat grinned as she caught sight of Molly's and my open mouths.

"You could've told us the stairs _moved_!" I finally managed to splutter out.

"What fun would that be?" Kat smirked evilly.

"Remind me again how you made it to Hufflepuff, Kat?" Justin said warily.

"I wanted either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, to annoy my parents, and I chose Hufflepuff," Kat said simply.

"Hi, Celina! Hi, Kat! Hi, Molly!" We looked up to see Hermione a floor above us, waving down at us.

"Hey!" we waved back. Hermione made her way down and joined us in walking the few steps we had left to the Great Hall - Ernie, Justin, Hannah and Susan didn't seem to mind her presence. At breakfast, Kat, Molly and I would sit at the end of the table so that we could turn around easily and talk to Sam and Syrena at the Slytherin table.

"Slytherin's not so bad," Sam shrugged to us. "At least Syrena and I have each other for company…though I don't know if that's a good thing." Syrena was cackling to herself (well, one of her imaginary friends) again and I slowly turned around and spooned some cereal into my mouth.

Poor Harry was always being stared at - whenever we ran into him on the way to class, people would be standing on tiptoes to see him or doubling back to stare at his scar.

"It's so annoying!" he burst out to me once lunch. "You'd think that they had better things to do!" Ron didn't look too sympathetic to me but I patted my cousin's shoulder comfortingly and then had to dash off with Molly and Kat to make it to our lesson.

Mental note number fifty six: when trying to navigate the castle, do not rely on any ghosts to help you find your way, except for the Fat Friar. The Friar would happily point us new Hufflepuffs in the right direction, and would even be so kind as to help people from other houses, but it was a shock when they randomly burst out of the wall in front of us.

Apart from moving staircases, the thing that annoyed me the most was the doors. Some wouldn't open unless you tickled them in the right spot or asked them very politely, but others were just walls pretending to be doors. The first time I ran into one of those, I had a headache for the rest of the day.

The poltergeist, Peeves, was annoying as hell if you met him when you were late to class (or if you just met him in general) - he'd drop bins on your head, pelt you with chalk, pull rugs out from under you or creep up behind you, grab your nose and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

As bad as Peeves might seem, there was one thing even worse than him: Argus Filch. At lunch, Professor Quirrell pulled me up and told me to keep my cousin away from the third floor corridor; apparently, Harry and Ron had tried to force their way into the corridor this morning by accident and were caught by the caretaker, before Professor Quirrell rescued them.

Filch had a pet cat called Mrs Norris, a scruffy, dust-coloured thing. She was Filch's partner in crime – err, justice; put one tiny toe out of line and off she'd run to Filch, who burst out of a secret passageway next to you a second later. Filch was the only one who knew about as much about the secrets of the school as Fred and George, and even then I was sure that the twins knew more than him. The students' biggest wish was to kick Mrs Norris but no one had ever achieved that feat.

Jet sure as hell didn't like her - I don't know when they ran into each other but when I saw her in our dormitory, she was in a very hacked-off mood.

Once we actually managed to stumble into our classrooms ten minutes late and incur a glare from the teacher, there were the lessons, which astounded me – I used to think that magic consisted of waving a magic wand and saying 'Abracadabra!', but it was far more than that.

Once a week, the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws would look at the night sky through our telescopes and we'd learn the names of different stars and planets and their movements.

Three times a week, we'd make our way out to the greenhouses for Herbology, which was taught by our Head of House, Professor Sprout, one of my favourite professors. There, we learned how to take care of the many different plants and what they were used for, and it was one of the few classes the Hufflepuffs had with the Gryffindors.

By unchallenged agreement, the most boring lesson ever to exist was History of Magic. Our teacher, Professor Binns, was a ghost – he'd gotten up one morning to teach and had left his body behind. The only exciting thing that happened there was when he floated through the blackboard, which got old fast. I suppose the subject would have been more exciting if we'd had a different teacher (who doesn't like blood and guts?) but Professor Binns droned on in a monotone and we were expected to take notes.

Hermione was the only one who could resist the power of his voice and in return for hanging out with her and getting our homework done, she'd lend me, Kat and Molly her notes so that we wouldn't fail.

"Do you three even _try _to take notes?" she said in amusement when we met up in the library.

"Nope," Kat, Molly and I chimed in unison.

"Are those History notes?" I heard Syrena's voice say and the pieces of parchment were snatched out of my hand as the girl read through them. "Man, this is just what I need!"

"Do your homework and I just might lend them," Hermione said, a little slyly in my opinion.

"I'd rather fail," Sam said while making a face and I giggled. I then spotted Zachery, Luke and Isabel reading over Syrena's shoulder and Kat gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Listen, we're actually paying in homework to read those notes, we can't have people reading them for free!" she said, trying to pry them out of Syrena's hand.

"History sucks!" Syrena yelled, doing a split for no apparent reason and throwing her hands up in the air.

"Get out!" the scary librarian, Madam Pince, screeched and I managed to pluck the notes from Syrena while she fled with Isabel, Luke and Zachery. Sam gave us a sheepish grin and followed.

"What are you girls doing?" Madam Pince barked and we hurriedly assured her that we were working. When she'd left, Kat said something about her that had me spluttering with laughter, Molly choking for air through her laughter and Hermione glaring at her disapprovingly.

Our Charms professor, Professor Flitwick, was so tiny that he had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. I'd giggled the first time I saw him as I wondered how anyone could be that small. He started off our first lesson by taking the roll call and, according to Hermione and a giggling Amami and Melody, he'd squeaked and fallen off his books at Harry's name when the Gryffindors had their first Charms lesson.

When I'd thought that Professor McGonagall was not someone to cross, I'd been right. As soon as we sat down in class with the Slytherins, she gave us a lecture.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complicated and dangerous magic you will learn," she said. "Anyone who messes around here will leave and not be allowed back. Don't say you haven't been warned." She then changed her desk into a pig and back, impressing all of us, though we were told that we wouldn't be doing stuff like that for years.

After taking down a lot of complicated notes, she handed out matches and we had to turn them into needles. By the end of the lesson, no one had managed to turn theirs fully into needles, though Kat, Molly and I had made ours shiny. Professor McGonagall merely nodded at our attempts before passing on.

"Betcha ten Galleons that Hermione did it!" Kat hissed to me and I struggled not to laugh as behind us, Sam let out a snort. His needle was a little pointy and looked a little clouded, like not-clear metal. Syrena's, meanwhile, was near-perfect and Professor McGonagall gave her what looked like a half-smile before moving on.

"Alright!" Syrena cheered quietly.

We'd all been looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts the most, but we were disappointed – they turned out to be a joke. Professor Quirrell's classroom had a really strong smell of garlic, which Kerri told me (in our common room before breakfast) was to ward off the vampire he was afraid was coming to seek revenge on him.

He told us that his turban was a present from an African prince for ridding him of a zombie, but we didn't believe that. When Susan asked him (very nicely) to tell us how he'd done it, he turned pink and muttered something about how nice it was outside. Also, we'd all noticed the same garlicky smell hanging around his turban.

"It's to keep the vampire away from him wherever he goes!" Kerri insisted at lunch when we asked her about it.

"Kerri, stop frightening the firsties," Gabriel mock-sighed and us 'firsties' glared at him.

"Hi, Celina!" Cedric waved as he passed to sit with his friends and I waved back, my face furiously red and hot.

"Ooooh, Cellie likes Ceddy!" Kat grinned evilly.

"Shut it! I do not! And don't call me Cellie!" I growled, pushing her, but the truth was that I did. He was so handsome and so kind! I noticed that he did hang around a second year Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, a lot and I didn't really like her. Amami liked her a lot though, since they were both Asian. I guess that when there aren't a lot of people like you somewhere, you tend to stick together with people who are like you.

My biggest relief was finding out that Harry and I weren't miles behind the others – I found out that half of the first-years hadn't even known that they were magical either, though Hermione was a special case as far as academic stuff went. Also, there was so much to learn that even Ron and Kat were down at our level of knowledge.

"Hey look, I think they finally managed not to get lost!" I whispered as we entered the Great Hall on Thursday morning to see Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table.

"Took them long enough," Kat snickered.

"You shouldn't talk about people behind their backs," the Fat Friar said disapprovingly as I added two rashers of bacon to my plate.

"We're jus' jo'ing!" Molly said through a mouthful of kipper.

"What've you got next?" Kerri asked, spreading some butter on her toast. "Gabriel and I have Double Charms."

"I have Double Transfiguration," Cedric said.

"We're turning needles into matches, but I'm not very good at it." I then realised that I'd just admitted that I was bad at something to Cedric, but he just laughed.

"It's all about focus," he told me. "You have to completely focus on the transformation."

"Really?' Thanks!" I said.

"Any time, Lina," he smiled and my cheeks turned pink as I remembered that Harry had called me the same thing the night before we left for Hogwarts.

"What're you up to?" Gabriel asked Cedric. "We're Vanishing snails but it's like the spell hates me or something." He made a face.

"Like I said, focus," Cedric said. "Though that does sound really hard. We're up to learning about Animagi, which you guys'll learn about in your third year."

"Animagi?" Molly frowned.

"People who can turn into animals," Susan told her and my mouth dropped, along with Molly's. "I wonder how you learn to be one!"

"Time and a whole lot of difficult spells," Cedric winced. "That's why you have to register yourself, so that they can keep tabs on anything that might go wrong."

"I bet you could do it!" I said and he shot me a dazzling smile.

"Thanks for your belief in me, Lina," he said and I felt myself melt as I smiled idiotically.

"You're so pathetic, you know that?" Kat muttered to me with a grin and I glared at her. I noticed Susan murmur something to Hannah and they burst into giggles. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had been said and I glared at them.

"We have Double Potions next," Ernie informed us.

"Great," Kat groaned. "Snape favours those Slytherins, but luckily we have it with the Ravenclaws, Sam told me that he has it tomorrow with the Gryffindors. Greasy-haired git," she added as a mutter and Kerri burst out laughing as Gabriel and even Cedric tried to contain their snickers.

"You sound like you know him," Justin frowned.

"I do," the blonde said, an ugly look on her face. "He's Malfoy's godfather, so he showed up at one of those pure-blood parties, even though he's not one. He's a slimy greaseball." I found myself inclined to believe that when I looked over at Malfoy at the Slytherin table, having a good laugh with Zachery's brother about something.

"Amen," Kerri nodded and this time, Gabriel couldn't help but let out a small snort.

Potions took place in one of the freezing dungeons, away from the main castle. Personally, I felt that it was creepy enough without the animals floating in jars around the room – I really didn't want to know what they were. Professor Snape took a leaf out of Professor Flitwick's book and started by taking the roll call, and when he reached my name, he gave me a malevolent glare that made me want to run and hide under a rock.

"I wonder why he hates you so much," Kat whispered, voicing my exact thoughts. I gave a sort of half-shrug in reply.

When Snape finished taking the roll call, he stood up and started to talk.

"Potions is one of the most delicate arts you will learn," he said. His voice was quiet but we all heard him - like Professor McGonagall, he could keep everyone quiet with no effort at all.

"As there is no silly waving of wands here, many of you will not believe that this is magic. I don't expect any of you to understand the beauty of a simmering cauldron, or the subtle power of potions as they seep through your veins, ensnaring the mind and bewitching your senses. I can teach you how to make the most difficult of potions, as long as you aren't as big a group of dunderheads I have to teach." I suppressed a glare with difficulty; I was _not _a dunderhead!

"Miss Dursley!" Snape suddenly snapped. "What would you get if you mixed powdered root of asphodel with an infusion of wormwood?

_Powdered what with what? _I thought in bewilderment. I frowned as I thought but I just couldn't put my finger on the answer.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know," I admitted.

"Just as I thought," Snape said, a little satisfied I thought. "Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

_What's a bezoar? _I thought. I could've sworn that I came across the term once, but I couldn't recall it.

"I don't know," I said.

"So, the cousin of the famous Harry Potter clearly thinks that his status puts her above everyone else?" Snape said and my mouth fell open. What the hell was this guy's problem?

"She's only a Muggle-born!" Kat protested loudly. "How's she meant to know this stuff?"

"One point from Hufflepuff," Snape said quietly. "And I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself in future, Miss Greengrass." Kat muttered something under her breath as Snape turned back to me.

"Very well then, Miss Dursley, one last question. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

_Monkshood and wolfsbane? Oh, I know this one, I do! _

"They're the same plant, sir, and another name for them is aconite!" I said triumphantly. Snape looked like he wanted to jump off a cliff but said, in a voice suppressed with rage, "That is correct, Miss Dursley."

"Nice one!" Kat whispered.

"Now, pair up and prepare this simple Boil-Curing Potion," Snape told us, flicking his wand so that writing appeared on the blackboard. "Instructions are on the board."

Molly and Kat immediately paired up with apologetic glances in my direction and when I turned to ask another Hufflepuff, I saw that Ernie, Justin, Hannah and Susan had already formed pairs. I resigned to asking another person for help, when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Do you want to work together?" I turned to see Isabel with a small smile on her face.

"Sure!" I beamed and she set up her cauldron straight away.

"So, do you have any idea of how to do this?" Isabel said with a sheepish grin. "I don't want to blow anything up, 'cause I have a habit of doing that at home whenever I try and make a potion with my older brother." I snorted at that and, looking around, I realised that the cauldrons looked just like pots at home.

"It's just like cooking!" I said. "Add too much or too little of anything, and you get a disgusting meal. Put the wrong things together, and disaster happens!"

"I'll trust you with that," Isabel said and started to chop up some ingredients while I heated the cauldron up.

At the end of the lesson, Isabel and I had produced a lime-green potion, which wasn't the exact shade of green that was required but was close enough. When Snape passed, he merely nodded down at it before passing on.

"Well, that was fun," I commented to Molly and Kat as we entered the Great Hall for lunch. "And nice work, Iz!" Isabel smiled shyly and skipped off to join Zachery and Luke at the Ravenclaw table.

"If I have to put up with Snape for seven years, I'm gonna lose it," Kat said, making a face and pulling some pie towards her. "He really does hate you, Celina, but how did you know the answer to the last question?"

"Well, one of my Muggle friends, Primrose, had a keen gardener for a mother, and she'd shown the two of us numerous pictures of poisonous plants and told us to watch out for them if we ever came across them," I explained. "Monkshood was among them and she told us that it also went by wolfsbane and aconite."

"Well, wasn't that lucky?" Molly grinned. As we left the Great Hall after lunch, Harry cornered us with Ron.

"Please tell us that Potions was a success," he pleaded. "Snape was giving me a real dirty look just before and if it was a failure for you, it's sure to be the apocalypse for me."

"He hates me," I shrugged and Harry groaned and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Just make sure you read One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, he might pile some questions on you."

"Well, tell me what he asked you!" my cousin said.

"He might ask you different questions," I shrugged apologetically. "The best you can do is just read as much as you can."

"Yeah, we'll do that," Ron said in a voice that indicated that he'd do anything but that. He and Harry left after that and Kat, Molly and I made our way to our next lesson.

"I don't know why Harry hangs around him," I said. "He seems like a nasty brat."

"Have you done anything to upset him?" Molly asked and I shrugged.

"Maybe Harry told him that your parents and brother hate magic and he automatically doesn't like you," Kat suggested.

"That'd better be all it is," I said in annoyance.

Next morning at breakfast, I actually received a letter. I'd gotten a huge shock the first time the mail had arrived and over a hundred owls had streamed into the Great Hall, letters and packages clamped in their beaks or tied to their legs. I noticed that Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything yet - she'd just fly in to nibble something from his plate - but Malfoy was always getting sweets from home, which he'd open loudly at the Slytherin table.

This morning though, Hedwig dropped down and landed next to my plate, two pieces of parchment in her beak.

"What are you doing here, girl?" I said in surprise. "You're Harry's, not mine!" I took a letter from her and the snowy owl gave a muffled hoot before flying towards the Gryffindor table.

"What does it say?" Hannah asked. In reply, I read the letter out loud:

_Dear Celina,_

_I know you and Harry get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig, and I've sent Harry a note just like this._

_Hagrid_

"Hagrid?" Gabriel said. "He's, like, the coolest! I needed help in Care of Magical Creatures with my essay on Hippogriffs, so I asked him about them and I got an O on it!" At our blank stares, he explained that O was the best grade you could receive.

"And there goes my experience with grading systems," I muttered. "Anyone got a quill I can borrow?" Susan handed me an off-white feather and ink and I hurriedly scribbled, _Yes please, see you later, _on the back. When Hedwig returned, I gave the parchment to her and stroked her, and she took off.

After lunch, I made my way down to Hagrid's hut by myself, Jet snuggled up in my robes, and knocked on the door. In response, it opened a crack and one of Hagrid's eyes peered out at me.

"Hey, Celina!" he said. "Back, Fang! Back! Can one of yeh grab him fer me?" I assumed that Harry and most likely Ron were already here, and my theory was proved correct when I finally managed to squeeze in and saw them sitting at the table, a black boarhound struggling against Ron's hand.

"Make yerself at home," Hagrid told me and when I sat down, Ron released Fang and the dog bounded across the room and rested his head on my knees, slobbering on my robes and tights. Like Hagrid, Fang was a softie and not as ferocious as his name sounded. In fact, he was really cute! Jet didn't seem to think so though, as she gave a frightened mew and tried to burrow deeper into my robes.

"Ah, Fang won' hurt her," Hagrid said and I fished my black kitten out and placed her on the floor. After looking at the frightened kitten for a moment, Fang lowered his head down next to her and Jet suddenly leapt onto it! Fang then began to walk around the cabin with Jet on his head, and Harry and I burst out laughing at the sight.

"They'll be grea' friends," Hagrid beamed. "Now, Celina, how's yer week bin?" I told him everything and he looked really happy when I told him about all my friends - Kat, Molly, Hannah, Justin, Susan, Ernie, Sam, Syrena, Isabel, Luke, Zachery, Kerri, Cedric, Gabriel…yeah, it went on.

"I knew yeh'd fit in," he said, setting down a plate of rock cakes. "An' what abou' yeh, Harry?"

"Only Ron," Harry admitted as I took one and tried to bite into it, only to find that one of my teeth might have cracked - they were literally hard as rocks. "And Amami Miharu and Melody Abellan have been really good to me too, they keep the crowds away from me. Most people just want to stare at my scar."

"Yeah, I can see why you'd have a bit of trouble there," I said sympathetically. "If it gets too much, just hang with Kat, Molly and I, we're usually in the library with Hermione if we're anywhere." I noticed Harry and Ron make a face at her name and I guessed that they still thought her a bossy-boots.

Hagrid quickly changed the subject as he noticed their faces, and we were really happy to hear him call Filch a git.

"And as fer Mrs Norris, she follows me everywhere I go when I go ter the castle," he said. "I reckon he puts her up ter it, I can' get rid o' her." Jet meowed in agreement and I cooed as I saw that Fang was lying on his back and she padded his stomach, before curling up.

"Yeah, she and Jet hate each other too," I nodded. Hagrid then asked about lessons, and both Harry and I complained about Potions.

"Ah, don' worry abou' Professor Snape, yeh two, he doesn' like any students," he said reassuringly.

"But he seemed to really hate me!" Harry and I said at the same time and then glanced at each other.

"Rubbish! Why would he?" But Hagrid didn't meet our eyes as he turned to Ron. "How's yer brother, Charlie? I liked him a lot, he was grea' with animals."

While Ron chatted to Hagrid about his older brother, Harry nudged me and showed me a newspaper clipping. I took it and read:

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, __widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

"_But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._

"Someone broke into Gringotts?" I exclaimed in surprise and both Hagrid and Ron turned to me.

"They did it on my birthday! We could've been there when it happened!" Harry said. Hagrid grunted and, no doubt about it, avoided our eyes as he offered us another rock cake.

Harry, Ron and I made our way back up to the castle later that afternoon, our pockets weighed down with rock cakes that we'd been too polite to refuse. Jet was snuggled into my robes, her head poking out of them, and I said goodbye to Harry and made my way down to the Hufflepuff common room, trying to put all the pieces together.

"What's on your mind?" Kat said when I sat with her and Molly near the fire, and I filled them in about everything as Jet jumped out and curled on my lap, near the heat.

"…and I'm pretty sure that the package that Hagrid took was what the thief was looking for," I finished. "I'll bet my kitten on it." Jet looked up and let out an alarmed meow.

**Whew, done! I had a fun day on Friday and, being in the SRC, I got the WHOLE day off, except for one lesson! Woot! I had to set up in the morning with the other SRC members, help out with serving ice cream and hot food for nearly three hours and clean up afterwards (ugh, high school kids are SO messy!). And the only lesson I didn't get off was the one I hate the most, PDHPE. Ah well, you can't have everything! **

**The theme was crazy hair, so I sprayed my hair blue with purple streaks, and got a black star painted over my eye. Best school day ever! ^^ Oh, and I have a little spoiler: two OCs will die in the Battle of Hogwarts. Who? You'll just have to be patient and wait 6 stories ;) ****Ok, now to answer reviews:**

**Randy Butternubs: I have to let Cedric die, that's a key point in the story :( As for the drawing, Envy Her is going to draw scenes from this story, so if you want a certain scene to be drawn, just PM them!**

**BXE: Yeah, I've already written out OWL results for the subjects I already know about (obviously, I won't have to ask anyone about what electives they want their characters to take until about halfway through CoS), and Molly gets an O in CoMC. That's all I'm telling you ;)**

**Solaria daughter of Apollo: I'm so glad that I've got her down well! Ok, I'll remember that Avery is a Squib, and this enmity with Pansy will be interesting!**


	8. Chapter 8

I'd never really hated someone before, but that was before I met Draco Malfoy and Zachery's brother, William Kyles. Still, at least Hufflepuffs didn't have all that many classes with the Slytherins, and when I read that we were to have flying lessons with the Ravenclaws on Thursday, I punched the air happily.

"No Slytherins!" I cheered.

"Better not let Syrena and Sam hear you say that," Kat grinned.

"I don't like heights," Molly said weakly.

"Neither do I, Molls, it'll be ok," I said reassuringly. I was telling the truth; I'd never really been a stickler for heights, not since I'd climbed a tree when I was five and couldn't get down.

"Great," Harry said to me darkly during Herbology. "Just what I always wanted - to make a fool of myself on a broom with Malfoy and Kyles watching."

"You don't know that you'll stuff up, Harry," Amami smiled from next to him.

"Anyway, Malfoy keeps going on about how well he can fly but he's only half as good as what he says," Kat smirked. "And I should know."

Malfoy and Kyles were always going around, bragging about how good they were on a broomstick and Malfoy kept telling stories of how he always managed to escape Muggles in helicopters, but I was pretty sure that he didn't have the foggiest idea of what a helicopter even was. When Molly smartly voiced this, he gave her a disgusted look and strutted off.

Well, they weren't the only ones going on about flying and 'Quidditch', whatever that was. A lot of people kept talking about it excitedly, even Ron, who kept going around and telling everyone about how he'd nearly hit a hang-glider on his brother, Charlie's, broom.

"And you'll never believe what he tried to do to poor Dean Thomas!" Hermione told us after lunch as we exited the Great Hall.

"What?" Molly said.

"He was tapping Dean's football poster with his wand and trying to make the players move!" Hermione said and Kat started giggling. "Apparently, he doesn't understand how football can compare to Quidditch!"

"Whatever the hell this 'Quidditch' is," I muttered and Aria Finnigan, who was passing by with Dean and Seamus, looked scandalised and she immediately pulled me away from my friends and started piling the rules on me.

"Don't mind her, she's been addicted to Quidditch since the age of five," Seamus shrugged as my head started to spin. "Come on, Aria, we're all going to be late to class!"

"This isn't over," Aria said with narrowed eyes. "I expect you to have a favourite Quidditch team and player before dinner or I will have my revenge!"

"Which usually involves a series of pranks!" Seamus called.

"What the hell am I going to do?" I said in a panicked voice. "That girl means business!"

"Just go for the Holyhead Harpies, they're my Quidditch team, and their captain is Gwenog Jones, so say she's your favourite," Kat instructed and I breathed a sigh of relief.

On Thursday, I nervously tried to keep a piece of toast and a sausage down in anticipation of what was coming that afternoon. Gabriel, Kerri and Cedric piled words of comfort on me but I barely heard any of what they said.

Looking over at the Gryffindor table, I could see Hermione with a book in her hands and her mouth was moving, indicating that she was talking. It appeared to be a boring subject because everyone around her were trying to ignore her or else looking about as nervous as I felt. She was stopped by the arrival of the post, and I noticed that Harry still hadn't gotten another letter since that note from Hagrid.

As I watched, I saw Neville receive what looked like a small glass ball that turned red on contact with his skin. I then saw Malfoy, Kyles, Crabbe and Goyle slope up to the Gryffindor table and Malfoy snatched the ball from Neville, who jumped up and tried to get it.

"Can I curse them?" I whined and Gabriel looked in the direction of my gaze.

"No need," he said. "McGonagall has the sharpest eyes around here…"

Sure enough, Professor McGonagall appeared there in a flash and Malfoy was made to give the ball back to Neville, before sliding away with Kyles, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Score one to the good guys," Kat cackled quietly.

HPCD

At four o'clock, we hurried down the stone steps of the castle into the grounds for our first flying lesson. The Ravenclaws were already there and so was our hawk-like instructor, Madam Hooch.

"What're you all waiting for? Stand by a broom, quickly!" she barked. I took a position between Kat and Isabel, the latter of whom smiled at me.

"Nervous?" Isabel asked.

"What do you think?" I replied and she smiled again.

"Just don't look down," she advised and I gave her a weak smile.

"Stick your right hands over your brooms and say up!"

"Up!" twenty odd voices chorused, with varied results. Kat's, Isabel's and Zachery's brooms leapt up into their hands at once; Luke's rose with a little hesitance; and Molly's and my brooms just rolled on the ground. Maybe they could sense our fear - Molly's voice shook and I certainly wasn't feeling like Superwoman or something.

Madam Hooch then walked up and down the lines of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, correcting our grips. She told me that I was holding it too far up and too tightly, so I moved them and relaxed. As soon as she moved on, I switched my grip back.

"Oh, relax," Kat scoffed. "How is this hard?"

"I don't like heights," Molly and I whimpered at the same time.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, I want you to kick off the ground, rise a few feet in the air and come back down if you feel that you need to," Madam Hooch instructed. "Three, two, one!"

She blew her whistle and I hesitantly kicked off from the ground and shot up into the air, clutching my broom tightly.

"Why're you so scared?" Kat laughed, her blonde hair rippling out behind her as she looped around. Zachery grinned from next to me and as the wind caught his hair, I saw a small scar on his temple.

"Where'd you get that scar?" I asked curiously. Zachery's smile faded and was replaced with an ugly scowl.

"Never you mind," he said in a hard voice and flew off, leaving me with a bewildered look on my face.

"Was it something I said?" I said.

"Don't mind Zack, he did that when I asked too," Isabel said, descending next to me.

Soon, we landed and Molly sighed with relief when her feet touched the ground.

"I never want to do that again," she said, wiping her forehead with her arm.

HPCD

"You're _joking_!" Kat gasped as she, Molly, Hermione and I exited the Great Hall after dinner. Hermione had just told us that Harry had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team as Seeker.

"No, I'm not! Malfoy stole Neville's Remembrall and flew up into the air, and Harry went to get it and managed to catch it after a dive and Professor McGonagall caught him and made him follow her, and I overheard him telling Ron Weasley just before!" Kat, Molly and I just gaped at her.

"I did not get one word of that," I said slowly, shaking my head. Hermione looked affronted but she repeated what she'd said, much slower this time.

"He breaks the rules and he gets a spot on the Quidditch team?" Kat said in wonder. "Where's a Remembrall for me to rescue?" She pretended to look around and Molly and I snorted.

"What's up, Hermione? Something's bothering you," Molly said when Kat had stopped her mock-searching. Hermione took a deep breath.

"Well, Malfoy showed up at dinner and tried to provoke Harry and he challenged him to a wizard's duel, and Ron accepted for him. They're going to the trophy room at midnight!"

"Harry!" I groaned.

"I'm going with them," Hermione said. "If I tell on them, they'll hate me forever! But I doubt that they know any good spells!"

"Knowing Malfoy, they won't need to," Kat said darkly and elaborated when we stared at her. "He's going to chicken out, tell someone and get them into trouble."

"Oh no! I have to tell them!" Hermione gasped.

"They won't believe you," I told her. "They'll think that you're just trying to get them out of it."

"So what do we do?" Molly said.

"I'm going after them," I decided.

HPCD

At eleven o'clock that night, I pulled on my dressing gown and crept out of the Hufflepuff common room and up to the trophy room (sticking to the shadows), where I found Harry, Ron and Hermione, waiting with…Amami, Melody and Neville? What was going on here?

"Guys!" I hissed and Harry and Ron jumped and pointed their wands at me, before relaxing when they saw who it was.

"Celina! What're you doing here?" Harry whispered as I slid over to them.

"What does it look like?" I replied and Harry and Ron shot accusing stares at Hermione, who turned pink and looked down at her slippers. "Listen, Malfoy's not going to show! He's going to tattle and get you into trouble!"

"And what makes you say that?" Ron said rudely. "How do we know that _she's _not trying to get you to get us to leave?" He nodded at Hermione and I gaped at him; who the hell could be that dumb?

"Well, what're you three doing here?" I said to Amami, Melody and Neville when I finally got my voice back.

"Melody and I overheard and we wanted a bit of action," Amami grinned.

"And I broke my wrist today and couldn't remember the password to get back into the common room," Neville added quietly. "They found me and took me with them."

"He's late!" Ron said impatiently. Just then, we heard a soft voice that belonged to Filch.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they could be in a corner!" Petrified, Harry gestured for us to follow him and we did so, but just as we made it out of the room, Neville tripped and crashed into Harry, who fell into a suit of armour that made the loudest noise I'd ever heard.

"Well that's just great!" I said.

"Run!" Harry shouted and we ran for our lives, bursting into a tapestry and emerging from the secret passage near the Charms classroom.

"I…told you that…he'd told on…you!" I wheezed, clutching at my side.

"Shut…up! No time for being…a know-it-all!" Ron panted back and I huffed as best as I could.

"You…shut up…you'll get us…caught!" Melody choked out.

"Everyone…shut it!" Amami gasped. A door suddenly slammed open in front of us and Peeves zoomed out. When he caught sight of us, he let out a delighted squeal.

"Please, Peeves - be quiet - you'll get us expelled!" I begged.

"Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty!"

"Not if you don't tattle, we won't!" Melody said in a pleading voice.

"I should tell Filch," Peeves said in a good-boy voice. "It's for your own good!"

"Get out of the way!" Ron took a swing at Peeves, which turned out to be the biggest mistake we'd made that night.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves hollered. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

The seven of us took off and ran for our lives, before thudding to a halt at a door.

"This is it! We're done for!" Ron pounded on the door and we could hear Filch's footsteps coming closer and closer.

"Oh, move over!" Hermione snarled and she produced her wand and tapped the door. "Alohomora!" As it swung open, we all piled inside and slammed the door shut behind us.

"Where did they go, Peeves?" we heard Filch's voice say. "Tell me!"

"Say please."

"Don't annoy me, Peeves, where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please!"

"Alright then…please."

"NOTHING! Ha haa! Told you that I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please!" Peeves' cackling and Filch's cursing eventually grew fainter and I let out a breath I didn't even know I had.

"Celina?" Hermione whimpered, tugging on my sleeve. "Celina?"

"What?" I turned and let out a strangled yelp as I saw a giant, three-headed dog behind us and I knew; this was the forbidden corridor.

The dog was just staring at us but I knew that it would soon get over the initial surprise; how anyone could mistake those rumbling growls was beyond me. As I quickly looked away from its face, I saw a trapdoor at its feet but I really couldn't concentrate on something as trivial as a trapdoor with a giant three-headed dog in my face!

"Let's get out of here!" Amami screeched and Melody and I tugged at the doorknob at the same time, before managing to get it open and falling out. We ran through the corridors, me separating from the others at one point to reach my common room, and I quickly managed to tap the rhythm out, crawl to the common room door and collapse on the carpet, panting heavily.

"Well, that's one adventure I hope to never have again!" I said to myself and managed to drag myself to the dormitory, where Hannah, Susan, Kat and Molly were sound asleep. As I let my thoughts drift to when I'd first visited Diagon Alley, I jerked upright.

_I think I know where the package from vault seven hundred and thirteen is! _I gasped in my head.

**Ok, I'm done! Sorry about the late update, but my mum's been sick all week and I've had to do the housework with my little sister. Hopefully I'm not coming down with something! :(**

**BXE: I'm glad that you're happy :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

The next morning, Malfoy's eyes were almost bugging out of his head when he saw my cousin and Ron at the Gryffindor table, big smiles on their faces. I was pretty tired but satisfied too; we'd stuck it to Malfoy!

"Oooh, Malfoy doesn't look happy," Kat grinned, munching on some bacon. "Did you mayhaps cause dear Drakey-poo some misery?"

"That I did, fair Katerina," I replied. "And what's with the medieval English anyway?"

"I'm bored," was her answer.

"Well, I certainly wasn't bored last night," I muttered. "What with a giant three-headed dog and all." Molly spat her pumpkin juice out and Kat's toast dropped to her plate.

"A _what_?" they screeched.

"Keep your voices down!" I hissed as Hannah and Susan looked at us curiously. I then told them the story of what had happened last night and by the end of it, I could've fitted Dumbledore's beard into their mouths, they were open so wide.

"What the _hell _could that thing be doing in this school?" Kat finally choked out.

"Well, I have my suspicions…" I filled them in on my thoughts about the package that Hagrid had taken out of vault seven hundred and thirteen.

"So you think that the thing is through the trapdoor and the dog's guarding it?" Molly said in a hushed voice.

"What else would it be doing there?" I shrugged.

Poor Hermione was still a bit shaken after last night and when we met up with her, she burst out, "What were they _thinking? _That's the last time I go and help them!"

"You're telling me," Melody grimaced as she and Amami passed us. "I'm still having nightmares about that thing and it's daytime!"

"How's that even possible?" Amami said and then they were out of sight.

"I'm not talking to them." Hermione shook her head. "No way. They'll just drag me on another adventure!"

"And here I was thinking that Harry would have a normal time at Hogwarts," I groaned.

HPCD

About a week later at breakfast, everyone's eyes were drawn to a long, thin package being carried by six owls, which dropped in front of Harry, much to our surprise. Another owl then dropped a letter on top of it.

"If that's what I think it is…!" Kat trailed off. "Oh dear Merlin, he is _so _lucky!"

"What is it?" Molly said at the same time.

"A broomstick!"

"You're kidding?" I said. "I mean, it didn't explicitly say in the rules that first years can't try out, but to have his own broomstick? I didn't know McGonagall was willing to bend the rules that much…"

"He's a Gryffindor," Kerri rolled her eyes. "Slytherin keep winning the Cup. And he's an excellent Seeker. Connect the dots."

"Don't be like that, Kerri, Celina didn't know," Cedric said and I smiled gratefully, my stomach turning to putty as I did so.

"How _did _you make it to Hufflepuff?" Gabriel said and Kerri gave him a withering look.

"Contrary to popular belief, I _am _a hard worker," she said acidly. "And I'm loyal."

"Are they going out or something?" Hannah giggled to Susan.

"_What?_" Kerri and Gabriel protested together.

"No," Cedric smiled. "I keep telling them that it's only a matter of time but they try and hex me." As if to prove his point, Kerri and Gabriel raised their wands simultaneously and pointed them at him.

"Um, McGonagall's watching," Justin pointed out and they lowered their wands and stashed them away.

We entered the Entrance Hall and as we climbed the stairs, we turned and caught sight of Malfoy feeling Harry's package, before throwing it back to him.

"You'll be in for it, Potter, broomsticks are banned for first years!" he spat.

"It's not just any old broom, it's a Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron retaliated and Kat moaned quietly. "What do you have, a Comet Two Sixty? Comets are pretty good-looking but Nimbuses are far above their league!"

"What would you know about it, you wouldn't be able to afford a piece of the handle!" Malfoy snapped. "Don't you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig for it?"

Before Ron could snap back, Professor Flitwick materialised out of thin air.

"Not arguing, boys?" he squeaked.

"Professor, someone sent Potter a broomstick," Malfoy said quickly but far from confiscating it, Professor Flitwick beamed.

"Yes, that's right! Professor McGonagall told me about the special circumstances! What model is it, Potter?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," Harry said and I could tell that he was struggling not to laugh. "And it's thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," he couldn't help but add and I smirked.

"Oooh, that would've stung," Kat snickered quietly. "Celina, if I were in your position, I'd forgive him instantly last night for a ride on that broom!"

"Is that all wizards care about?" Molly said, shaking her head. "Quidditch?"

"Not just about Quidditch!" Kat protested.

"Well, what else then?" Hermione challenged, popping up behind us.

"Um, we care about…about…um…can I get back to you on that?" Kat said and I giggled.

"Well, it's true!" we heard Harry say as he and Ron climbed the stairs. "If Malfoy hadn't taken Neville's Remembrall and flown off, I'd never have made the team!"

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for your rule-breaking?" Hermione said angrily as the boys passed by us. Harry nodded at me and I nodded back with a small smile.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" my cousin then said, which wiped the smile off my face.

"Yes, please don't stop, it's doing us a world of good," Ron added and Hermione marched off with her nose in the air.

"Forget what I said, Celina, no Nimbus Two Thousand would make me forgive someone who insulted my friend," Kat said in a hard voice. "You know, Weasley, I actually told Celina here that your family was one of the decent ones."

"Fred and George are cool," I said. "And Harry, I'm surprised at you - you, of all people, know what it's like to be bullied." And with that, Molly, Kat and I hurried after Hermione but were forced to abandon our search when class beckoned.

HPCD

Maybe it was because we were so busy with homework and classes, but I could hardly believe that I'd been at Hogwarts for two months - the sad thing was that I was having a far better time here than I'd ever had at home.

"Is that a bad thing?" I said hesitantly to Luke, Syrena, Isabel, Zachery, Kat and Molly as we worked on our homework in the library and I told them about my feelings.

"No way," Zachery snorted. "Merlin knows here's a far better home than my real one is." He didn't go into details but after our flying lesson, I knew better than to pry into his life - if he wanted to tell me about it, then he would.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Isabel smiled. "I'm having more fun here too, but that's probably because I actually get to use magic. In fact, I say that Hogwarts will always be my home, despite the fact that my family and home are awesome." Her hair suddenly turned a darker, sun-yellow colour and I dropped my quill in surprise.

"How - how did you -?" I stammered. Isabel gasped as she caught sight of her hair and quickly changed it back to her normal white-blonde, a worried expression on her face.

"Oh no…" she murmured quietly.

"You're a Metamorphmagus?" Kat said interestedly and Isabel looked down.

"That is so cool!" Molly and I said at the same time and Isabel blinked.

"You - you really think so?" she said.

"Heck yeah!" I said. "What I wouldn't give to be able to switch my hair to pink! That's been my secret ambition since I was six!" Isabel beamed widely.

"Really?" Molly said to me and I shrugged.

"Just don't tell anyone - not even Harry knows," I said with a sheepish grin.

"Iz, if we didn't care, then why should they?" Luke murmured, finishing his essay and pulling out his notebook.

"Sorry," Isabel said. "I'm just used to people calling me a freak for my ability."

"They're the freaks!" Syrena declared and Isabel smiled.

"Coming from the girl with the imaginary friends? Not very reassuring," I grinned and Syrena pouted in mock-hurt.

HPCD

On Halloween, we trudged down to breakfast with the mouth-watering smell of baking pumpkin filling the corridors and making us all drool hungrily.

"You've never had a Halloween until you've tasted the feast here," Gabriel declared to us over breakfast. "Trust me, my mother's the best cook I know and even she can't cook a pumpkin as good as the house-elves can!"

To make things even better, Professor Flitwick announced that morning in Charms that we were ready to start making things fly, something we'd been looking forward to heaps since he'd managed to make Hannah float a few inches off the ground.

He paired us up to work; I was put with a Hufflepuff boy whose name I didn't know.

"Now, don't forget that wrist movement we've practiced!" Professor Flitwick instructed. "Remember, swish and flick!"

It wasn't exactly the easiest of things; the boy (whose name I learned was Mitch) and I kept swishing and flicking and we sure as heck weren't getting anywhere. Eventually, in frustration, I managed to make my feather shoot up, hit the ceiling and crash back down again.

"Well, it's a start," I laughed as Mitch looked alarmed.

"Why is it so damn hard?" Kat said through gritted teeth, finally pounding the feather with her wand and blowing it up.

"Oh, I give up!" she cried, burying her face in the table as Molly had to snuff the fire with her hat.

"Swish and flick!" Professor Flitwick squeaked. "Don't forget to make the 'gar' nice and long! Say it like this: Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa!" I tried it and, to my surprise, managed to lift my feather a little.

"Alright!" I said happily.

That afternoon, after Transfiguration, Kat, Molly and I were pushing our way through the corridor when we heard a familiar voice behind us say, "It's Levi-o-sa, not Levi-o-_sar_! It's no wonder no one can stand her! She's such a nightmare!" Someone pushed past and as Kat caught me, I saw that it was Hermione, her face tear-stained.

"Oh, that is it, he's gone too far this time!" Kat roared.

"You and Molly deal with him and I'll go after Hermione," I suggested angrily and Kat and Molly nodded and stormed off into the direction of Ron's voice, while I hurried after Hermione. She didn't slow down until she reached a girls' bathroom and pushed the door open. I crept up to it and heard her sobbing inside, so I gently pushed the door open and slid in.

Hermione was sitting on the floor against the wall, her face in her knees and arms, crying hard and so she didn't hear me enter.

"Hermione?" I said softly, moving towards her and sitting down. She looked up, her eyes a little red.

"Why d-do they h-hate me?" she sniffed. "What h-have I d-done t-to th-them?"

"Nothing," I said soothingly. "You were just trying to be their friend and be smart, that's all."

"Well, you, K-Kat and M-Molly are the only th-three who like m-me!" Hermione wailed.

"They just don't appreciate how smart you are," I said cautiously; Hermione needed to know that she was being a little bossy with them, but now wasn't the moment - now was the time for comfort.

She didn't seem to want to say any more, however, and we just sat there in silence, doing and saying nothing. Eventually, Hermione stopped crying and even managed a weak smile to me, before her face fell into misery again.

"Shouldn't you be getting to the Halloween feast?" Hermione said, a few hours later.

"Are you coming?" I asked.

"No…I don't think I can face them. I think I'll stay here."

"Well, I'm not going to leave my friend for a dumb feast that I can easily go to next year," I declared and Hermione gave me a wide smile.

"I'm really lucky to have you, Molly and Kat as friends," she said, putting her hand on mine. I smiled at her and squeezed her hand in reply.

"By the way, where are Molly and Kat? Didn't they come with you?"

"They went to give Ron a tongue-lashing," I said and Hermione chuckled weakly.

Soon, we heard a weird noise; it sounded like heavy footsteps coming right at us!

"What's that?" I whispered, clutching Hermione's arm.

"I don't know!" she squeaked. "Whatever it is, it's not human!" We sat there in fright, listening to the pounding growing closer, and eventually, a giant, grey-skinned monster appeared in the doorway, reeking horribly and carrying a huge club.

"A troll!" Hermione squeaked.

"What's a troll doing here?" I managed to stutter out. We backed away and, just as we decided to make a dash for the door, it slammed shut and a key turned in the lock!

"No!" Hermione and I exclaimed together. The troll turned to us and advanced, swinging its club around as it did so. Hermione and I screamed, and we couldn't stop. Just as I felt that I was about to faint, Harry, Ron, Kat and Molly appeared in the suddenly open doorway and Harry cried, "Confuse it!" He seized a tap and threw it against the wall.

I guess it was a good thing that the troll's attention was diverted from Hermione and I, but now Harry was right in the path of danger as the troll advanced on him and lifted its club.

"Oi, pea-brain!" Ron yelled from the other side of the room and threw a pipe at the troll. It turned and made its way toward him.

"Come on, run!" Kat screeched and she and Molly tried to pull me and Hermione out of the bathroom, but we were frozen to the spot in terror.

Everyone shouting at the same time seemed to be driving the troll crazy. It roared and advanced on Ron, who had nowhere to go. Molly dived at Ron and pushed him out of the way but in doing so, she made herself vulnerable to the troll, which lifted her bodily off the ground by her leg. She screamed in terror and tried to wriggle out of the troll's grip but she couldn't, and it raised its club to hit her.

I don't know what possessed my cousin in that moment but he did the stupidest thing; he ran at the troll, jumped and fastened his arms around its neck. Now, a troll is so big that it would barely notice anyone who hung off its neck, but I should think that anyone would feel a wand stuck up their nose - because that's exactly what Harry did.

Howling in pain, the troll writhed and waved its club everywhere, with Harry clinging on for dear life and Molly screaming her head off; any second, I was sure that Harry was either going to be ripped off or caught with the club - neither options appealed to me.

Hermione was quivering on the floor in fright, Kat was jumping around, trying to free Molly, and Ron had pulled out his wand and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"You can't even do that spell!" Kat screeched but the club flew out of the troll's hand and dropped on his head. The troll swayed on the spot, dropped a screaming Molly, who landed on Kat, and fell to the floor with a crash.

Harry stood up, shaking, and Ron was frozen on the spot with his wand raised, staring at the troll. Kat was hugging a trembling Molly and I was squeezing Hermione's arm so tight that her hand was a white colour.

"Is - is it dead?" I squeaked.

"No, I'm pretty sure that it's just been knocked out," Harry replied, pulling his wand out of the troll's nose.

"Eww, troll boogers," Kat said, wrinkling her nose as Molly and I turned green. A loud slamming noise and multiple footsteps made us look up sharply.

_Of course, we weren't being exactly quiet, _I thought.

A second later, Professor McGonagall burst into the room, followed by Professors Snape and Quirrell. All it took was one glance at the troll and Quirrell was on the ground, whimpering.

_And he's the Defence teacher? I don't see how he could've taken on zombies if he's scared of the sight of an unconscious troll!_

Snape bent over the troll to examine it and McGonagall was looking at Harry, Ron and Hermione with white lips, a sure sign that she was past angry.

"What on earth were the six of you thinking?" she said in fury. I wished that Ron would put his wand down; it was still in the air. "You are so lucky that you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your common rooms?" She fixed Kat, Molly and I with the same look and I wondered how we would get out of this; even though Professor Sprout was technically our Head of House, McGonagall could still punish us, being a professor and all. Snape gave Harry a look that made him look at the floor, and then he repeated the action with me. The venom in his eyes made me shiver.

"Please, Professor, don't punish them, it's my fault. They came looking for me," Hermione said in a small voice.

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had managed to finally stand up and she helped me up with her.

"I went looking for the troll because I - I've read about them, you know, and I thought that I could take it on. Celina heard and came to find me to try and stop me but I managed to talk her into staying and helping me. It's really not her fault, Professor."

Ron dropped his wand and Harry, Molly and Kat's mouths hit the floor, as did mine. She was - lying to a teacher? Who was she and what had she done with Hermione Granger?

"If Harry, Ron, Kat and Molly hadn't found us, we'd be dead right now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose, Molly distracted it, Kat tried to get Celina and I out of here and Ron managed to charm its club to knock it out. They didn't have time to get help, it was about to kill Celina and I when they got here. Please don't punish them, not even Celina, it's my fault she nearly died."

I saw Harry, Ron and Molly try and look as if this had been the case all along, which they failed miserably at, as I knew I did too. Kat, however, could put on a complete poker-face and look truthful - I'd have to ask her how she did that.

"Well - in that case -" McGonagall said, looking at us. "Miss Granger, you silly girl, how could you even think of taking on a mountain troll by yourself? Thanks to your actions and Miss Dursley's loyalty, she was nearly killed here today with you."

_Now that's a little harsh, _I thought as Hermione looked down in shame. I could think, but I sure couldn't say anything. I mean, Hermione lying to a teacher to get us out of trouble? It was as if Snape had thrown a 'Gryffindors are awesome!' party!

"Miss Granger, I'm going to take five points from Gryffindor. I'm very disappointed in you. Now, if you're not hurt, you may leave and get to Gryffindor tower, where the Gryffindor students are finishing the feast." Hermione left the bathroom.

"Miss Dursley, you deserve five points for loyalty to your friend but I'm not going to give them to you, for putting yourself in danger and not alerting a teacher that Miss Granger was going to deal with a troll. You may leave also." I quickly hurried from the bathroom and caught up with Hermione at a staircase.

"How did it go?" she said. "Did Professor McGonagall excuse them from trouble?"

"I don't know," I said. "All I know is that she would've given me five points for loyalty but didn't because I supposedly 'went after you instead of telling a teacher'." Hermione gave a weak chuckle.

"Hermione, can I ask something?" She nodded. "Why did you lie and cover Harry and Ron up back there? You could've easily put them in the spotlight for bullying."

"I didn't want them to get in trouble," Hermione said, looking down at the floor. "I mean, sure they said nasty things to me, but they did put themselves in danger for me and come after me when they knew that I could die, even though they didn't have to. That has to count for something, right?"

"You're right, Hermione," I said. "Now, next time, don't go tackling trolls by yourself, young 'un!" Hermione snorted sniffily, just as Kat and Molly caught up

"Ten points to Hufflepuff!" Kat beamed. "For showing loyalty due that of Hufflepuff house and showing courage in the face of danger!"

"Excellent!" I beamed.

"I'm pretty sure that Harry and Ron will get points too, Hermione, don't stress about the five," Molly said kindly to Hermione, who nodded and suddenly embraced the three of us.

"Thanks for being there for me," she said to us when she released us.

"Hey, what are friends for, right?" Kat said and Hermione beamed.

"Well, we'd better get to our common room," Molly said. "We don't want those points to be taken off us!"

"Right - well - goodnight," Hermione said and climbed the staircase, while Kat, Molly and I took another one down to the Hufflepuff common room. As we flopped into the common room, I had this weird feeling that Harry and Ron would end up friends with Hermione - I mean, you can't take on a mountain troll and not form a special bond!

**I wish more people would review, you know, not getting reviews makes me wonder about the quality of my chapters and if I've gone wrong anywhere. And I always respond to them, so don't be afraid to ask a question! Although if it's about something that happens in the future, I'll most probably say: **_**You'll see ;)**_

**Yeah, so I've noticed that Celina's sort of the leader of the trio, like Harry, though not as hot-headed, Kat's the more outgoing and kick-butt one, the 'Gryffindor Hufflepuff' if you will, and Molly's the sweeter, kinder, quieter one with not a lot of courage in normal situations but she will always find courage to help a friend, like in this chapter with the troll. Ok, I seriously have to stop writing such long ANs XD**

**Randy Butternubs: Well, I'll try and include all characters, and since Amami and Melody are on 'nice speaking terms' with Harry and all, it makes sense that they'd overhear about the duel and want to come. Yes, my mother is so much better now, and I didn't come down with whatever she had, which I probably should have coz I took a week of school to look after her and all. And it was sort of 'my sister helping me', since she's seven and all ;) You're the oldest of siblings? Yay, you know how I feel at times! I do have to look after my brother and sister quite a lot but it's not as if I mind - well, not until they start their famous arguments XD Thank you heaps for your concern, everything is well now! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

As October turned into November, the weather grew colder and the lake looked like a sheet of chilly grey iron, while the grounds were covered in frost every morning. Whenever I was upstairs, I could see Hagrid out the window on the Quidditch field, defrosting broomsticks and wearing what looked like a whole farm: a moleskin coat, rabbit fur gloves and beaverskin boots.

The Quidditch season had started and my cousin would be playing his first match on Saturday. What worried me was that he played against Slytherin.

"Slytherin always cheat and use dirty tricks," Kerri grumbled over breakfast a few days before the match. "Don't they, Ced?"

"Leave me out of this," Cedric said hastily and I laughed loudly while Kat pretended to gag and Molly snorted into her cereal.

Harry did have a lot of pressure on him, though - people kept saying that he'd be brilliant or, in the Slytherins' case, that they'd be running under him with a mattress.

"Honestly, how _did _you three end up in Slytherin?" I said to Sam, Aria and Syrena in disbelief as we met up in the Entrance Hall, where the Slytherins were jeering and bragging loudly. The three of them shrugged, embarrassed looks on their faces, and I got the feeling that they wished they were anywhere but there.

"I'm going to find my brother," Aria muttered as the Slytherins laughed particularly loudly and bolted.

I noticed that with Hermione as their friend, Harry and Ron actually managed to get their homework done. I got Harry - he did have Quidditch practice and Wood was, in my opinion, a bit of a maniac about it - but Ron was so lazy!

"You don't still hate him, do you?" Kat asked me in Herbology as Harry and Ron successfully produced their homework.

"No," I said, rolling my eyes. "He did apologise and everything…"

And he did; the next time Ron and I had ran into each other after Halloween, he'd apologised for being a git and we'd shaken hands.

Honestly, I thought Harry and Ron were a bad influence on Hermione - Kat, Molly and I knew for a fact that the 'no magic in the corridors' thing extended to the grounds, since Gabriel had drilled the rules into us so that we lost as little points as possible for Hufflepuff, but Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't seem to know that; Hermione had conjured up bright blue flames in a jam jar to keep us warm when we were out in the courtyard once.

As we were warming up with our backs against it, Snape limped across the courtyard and the six of us moved together to block the fire from view. Unfortunately, we really needed to work on our innocent faces - Snape limped over and though he couldn't see the fire, he found a reason to get us in trouble anyway.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," Snape said, upon spotting the book in Harry's hand. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor." He looked at me, as if trying to find a reason to get me into trouble too, and said, "Dursley, take that thing out of your hair!" I scowled and removed my hairtie, which had a big, pretty flower on it.

"Things like that are not to be worn," Snape said. "Hand it over. Five points from Hufflepuff."

"He so made those rules up!" Kat hissed as Snape limped away.

"Yeah, did you see the way he looked at Harry and Celina? It was like he was trying to get them into trouble!" Molly added. Well, at least I wasn't the only one who saw that…

"Wonder what's wrong with his leg?" Harry frowned.

"Dunno but I hope it's really hurting him!" Ron glared. Hermione and I exchanged looks.

Later that evening, in the common room, I was playing with my curls while I worked on homework with Kat and Molly and I was scowling. That hairtie was a birthday present from my mother! She'd stuck that flower on herself and sprinkled glitter onto it! Who was Snape to take it from me - there certainly was no rule against wearing something like that! I took my suspicions up with Gabriel and Kerri.

"No, you're perfectly entitled to wear that," Gabriel agreed, scratching out a line on his essay. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to get those points back."

"Go get it back from Snape," Kerri suggested. "If there are other teachers around, he'll have to give it back - after all, you'd have to explain what happened and he'd be seen as unfair."

"Thanks," I said happily and made my way up to the staffroom. When I reached the door, I bumped into Harry.

"Trying to get your book back?" I said and he nodded.

"There so isn't a rule against having a book outside!" he said angrily and I nodded and knocked on the door. No answer. Harry knocked. Still no answer.

"Maybe there's no one in there?" I said. "He could've left the book and hairtie in there."

"Yeah," Harry agreed and we pushed the door open, to be met with a horrifying sight. Snape and Filch were in there alone, and Snape had his robes above his knees! I turned green was about to bolt, when I noticed his bloody leg and breathed a sigh of relief.

_I still reckon I'm scarred for life, though! _I thought as Filch handed Snape another bandage.

"Blasted thing," Snape grumbled. "How are you supposed to keep track of all three heads at once?" Harry and I exchanged looks and tried to close the door quietly but -

"POTTER! DURSLEY!"

Snape was furious as he dropped his robes to hide his leg.

"We just wondered if we could have my book and Celina's hairtie back," Harry gulped.

"OUT! GET OUT!"

Before Snape could dock any more points from Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, Harry and I bolted to our respective common rooms.

"Did you get your hairtie?" Molly asked.

"What's up? Did Snape turn into a bat?" Kat added.

"No, nothing like that," I panted and told them what Harry and I had seen.

"I reckon he tried to get past that dog," I finished. "Though when, I don't know…"

"Well, we did see him heading to the third floor on Halloween, when we went to rescue you and Hermione," Molly admitted.

"That's it, then!" Kat declared. "He tried to get past the dog on Halloween and get whatever it was guarding! I reckon he let that troll in too, to serve as a distraction!"

"He wouldn't, would he?" Molly said hesitantly. "I mean, he's not very nice but - would he try and steal something that Dumbledore was keeping safe, right out from under his nose?"

"Honestly, Moll, you're too gullible!" Kat said and Molly and I glared at her. "Right…sorry. Point is, he was found at the scene of the crime and we have the evidence to prove it."

"Yeah, I really wouldn't put it past Snape to try and steal something," I agreed. "I wonder what the dog's guarding…"

The next morning was very bright but absolutely freezing. When we sat down at the Hufflepuff table, all we could hear was Quidditch this and Quidditch that.

"I don't know what the big deal about Quidditch is," I said as I piled my plate with bacon and sausages. Molly nodded in agreement as Kerri, Kat, Hannah, Susan and Ernie gave me scandalised looks.

"I'll forgive you this once, due to your ignorance, but _never _let me hear you say that again!" Kerri said and I shifted away.

"Leave Celina alone, Kerri, not everyone likes Quidditch," Cedric said and I shot him a grateful smile as I suddenly felt as if I couldn't stomach any breakfast.

Over at the Gryffindor table, I could see Ron, Hermione and Aria's brother, Seamus, trying to coax Harry to eat something.

"Harry really should eat something," Kerri frowned, watching him. "Seekers get the nastiest hits."

"Thanks," I said weakly, pushing my barely-touched food away. Gabriel shot her a look and she apologised to me.

At eleven o'clock, the whole school was out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch, many clutching binoculars. Kat was no exception.

"The seats might be high up but it's often difficult to see what's going on," Kat explained to me when I stared at her binoculars. Molly and I nodded in agreement.

I wished that I could sit with Ron and Hermione but by the time we saw where they were, the seats were already full and we had to stay where we were. One advantage was that we were sitting next to a large group of my friends: Sam, Syrena, Luke, Zachery and Isabel were there, and over near Ron and Hermione, I could see Aria, Amami, Melody, Seamus and Dean, all holding a large banner that said _Potter for President _in multi-coloured letters and had a giant Gryffindor lion underneath.

Soon, the players filed out onto the pitch and Madam Hooch appeared to speak to them. I played with my hair nervously.

"Nice hair," Isabel grinned and, a look of concentration on her face, she morphed her hair to look like mine. I smiled back at her. I'd managed to convince Kerri and Gabriel to turn half of my hair bright red, so that I had red and gold hair that matched the Gryffindor colours. Upon seeing my idea, Kat had asked for it as well.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the looks on those dear Slytherins' faces when they see this," she'd cackled evilly. Molly had opted to keep her hair strawberry blonde.

"After all, it's pretty much red and gold mixed into strawberry blonde!" she'd said and I couldn't argue with that logic.

The players mounted their brooms and Madam Hooch blew her whistle.

"They're off!" Kat squealed as the players kicked off and Molly and I grimaced at each other.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor - what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too -"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Lee Jordan, Fred and George's best friend, was doing the match commentary in the teacher's box, Professor McGonagall watching him like a hawk. Well, knowing that he hung around the Weasley twins, I could hardly blame her…

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve - back to Johnson and - no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes -"

"Go Flint!" Syrena and Sam cheered and I shot them looks.

"What?" Sam said. "We're Slytherin, you know! It'd be base treachery to cheer for Gryffindor!"

"Right, I'll remember that," I nodded.

"- he's going to sc - no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger - Quaffle taken by the Slytherins - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which -"

"Some friend he is!" Isabel laughed but Kat shushed her as she watched the game intently. I just rolled my eyes at Isabel with a grin.

"- and Johnson in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now, Angelina - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Kat, Molly, Zachery, Isabel, Luke and I cheered loudly along with the Gryffindors and Gryffindor supporters, while Sam, Syrena and the rest of Slytherin howled and groaned.

"Hey, look at that!" I laughed to Molly, pointing in the direction of the large _Potter for President _banner. Hagrid was trying to squeeze in with Ron and Hermione and was almost squashing some students.

"Do you think he'll fit?" Molly said and I shrugged and turned my attention back to Harry, who was gliding around and doing nothing for now. I screamed when a Bludger zoomed towards Harry but one of the Weasley twins pelted it towards Flint and I sighed in relief.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee said. "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys and Chaser Bell, and speeds towards the - wait a moment - was that the Snitch?"

Everyone around us started muttering and Pucey dropped the Quaffle. As Harry and Terence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, dove for something invisible, everyone in the game stopped to watch.

"Idiots!" Kat hissed. "You don't stop playing when the Seekers go for the Snitch!"

"Calm down, Kat!" Molly said in alarm. "It's just a game!" Kat turned fiery green eyes on the strawberry blonde, who gulped and shoved Sam in front of her.

"Hey!" Sam protested but wisely shut up under Kat's gaze. I was barely paying attention to them, though - I was focused on Harry, who was neck and neck with Higgs.

WHAM!

"Foul!" we all howled as the rest of the Gryffindor supporters roared with rage - Flint had blocked Harry on purpose and my cousin span off course, holding on for dear life. Madam Hooch appeared to speak to him sternly and ordered a penalty for Gryffindor but Flint had achieved his goal - the Snitch was gone.

"Red card!" I screamed. "Send him off!" Sam was nodding furiously in agreement.

"What's a red card?" Kat frowned. Molly shrugged.

"If you get shown a red card in football, they take you off!" I said. "I'm glad all that watching sport with Dad paid off!"

"But this is Quidditch, not football!" Zachery said.

"Well, they should change the rules!" Sam said furiously. "Flint nearly knocked Harry out of the air!"

"Thank you, Sam!" I said and clapped him on the back. As I turned back to the game, I screamed again.

"Look at Harry!" I screeched. Harry's broom had started to lurch and it zigzagged and swished through the air. No one but me and my friends seemed to have noticed, however, and Lee was still commentating.

"What's going on?" Kat shouted. "He's lost control - but how could that happen?" Molly and Isabel, meanwhile, were turning to people around them and pointing out Harry. Those people would look up, gasp and tell their friends, and I hoped that word would spread quickly.

"NO!" I screamed as Harry was bucked off the broom and held on with only one hand. I turned to Sam, who was nearest, and I buried my face in his chest and clutched him tightly, not bearing to watch.

"Did something happen when Flint blocked him?" I heard Molly's anxious voice say.

"No, it can't have! Only powerful magic could interfere with a broom like that!" Kat said. I sobbed even harder and my grip on the back of Sam's robes tightened.

"At least Fred and George'll catch him if he falls!" Syrena said. That didn't reassure me at all. "And didn't some people say that they'd be running around with a mattress?" I dug my fingers into Sam's back as I resisted the urge to turn around the strangle Syrena.

"Syrena, shut up!" Zachery said.

"Sorry, Paul took over for a second!"

"You're not helping!"

"That little snake!" Isabel hissed.

"What?" I said in a muffled voice. Sam translated for me.

"Flint - he's scoring goals while everyone's focused on Harry!"

"I can't take it!" I screeched and I turned and tried to dive forward, not caring that I could very well break my neck, but Sam caught me.

"Let me go!"

"No! You'll kill yourself!"

"SAM, LET ME GO!"

"Look!" Isabel said, pointing at Harry, and I looked up. Harry had finally managed to climb back onto his broom and I saw a commotion and a speck of bright blue in the teachers' box but I didn't care. I started laughing in relief through my tears but stopped when Harry clapped his hand to his mouth as he sped to the ground, like he was going to be sick. He coughed and something must have fallen into his hand.

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted and waved it above his head.

"No way!" Kat gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth. "He caught the Snitch in his _mouth_?"

"That's definitely going down in Quidditch history!" Zachery agreed as Lee announced the score: one hundred and seventy to sixty. None of us stuck around, though - Sam, Molly, Kat and I had joined Harry, Ron, Hermione, Amami and Melody at Hagrid's hut, where my cousin had a mug of tea in front of him.

"It was Snape," Ron said and I gasped.

"You're sure?" Molly said with wide eyes.

"Yeah, Hermione and I saw him! He was cursing your broomstick, Harry, he wouldn't take his eyes off you." I felt a rush of hatred well up in me and I wanted to curse Snape into a million pieces.

"Rubbish," Hagrid said. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

"But we found out something about him," Harry said. "He tried to get past the three-headed dog on Halloween and it bit him. We think it's trying to steal whatever it's guarding." Sam's mouth fell open, Kat and Molly nodded along with Ron and Hermione and Amami and Melody blinked interestedly. Hagrid dropped his teapot.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"_Fluffy_?" I choked out.

"Yeah - he's mine - bought him off a Greek chap I met in the pub las' year - I lent him ter Dumbledore ter guard the -"

"Yes?" Harry said eagerly.

"Don' ask me anymore, that's top-secret," Hagrid said roughly.

"But Snape's trying to steal it!" Kat said.

"Rubbish," Hagrid repeated. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" Hermione cried. "I know a jinx when I see one! You have to keep eye contact and Snape _wasn't _blinking!"

"Yer wrong! I don' know why Harry's broom acted the way it did bu' Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student!"

"Unless that student's name is Harry Potter," I muttered.

"Now listen ter me, all of yeh - yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. Forget that dog an' what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel -"

"Oh, so someone called Nicolas Flamel is involved, huh?" Melody said triumphantly, a cheeky grin on her face. Hagrid looked absolutely furious.

**Hiya! No, I'm not dead! I know there's really no excuse for updating. I just lost my inspiration…well, it could happen to anyone! Anyway, I've been musing a bit and I've set up a poll on my page that isn't related to this story! Please vote in it!**

**On a side note…I'm getting a job at the end of this month :D Well, it's almost certain but it does mean that I won't be able to update as frequently (yeah…like I've been doing that lately XD)**

**Oh, and can I say a huge thank-you to Randy Butternubs, who PMed me today and kicked my butt into gear. Thanks for your help! :)**

_**Envy Her: That's alright, I'm just saying that if someone spots a mistake and points it out, I can make sure I don't do it again, and if they tell me what parts they like and that…well, yeah ;)**_

_**Randy Butternubs: Yeah, she's all better, though I did have a drama queen moment a week ago when my stomach hurt so much that I couldn't stand up straight and we started worrying that it was appendicitis, before I ate and found out that it was just hunger pains XD  
>And thanks, I think of you as a sort of friend too :) I don't have millions of real life friends, though that's probably cause I'm a nerd and I'm in the virtual world and my own fantasy world much more than the real world XD<br>Hmm…Melody is friends with Celina, as are the other OCs, but no, she won't be like Kat and Molly are with Celina, mainly cause she's in a different house and it gets far too confusing if ten OCs suddenly jump in and surround Celina. And yeah, I could try and fit them into the library, but when I made notes on the characters (to organise info on them), I had her being best friends with Amami, Lavender, Parvati and Padma, though they are pretty good friends with Harry and Ron.  
>This story's from Celina's POV, so she wouldn't know what's going on in the Gryffindor common room, but I can tell you that Amami and Melody did hang with Hermione, and will whenever she is fighting with Harry and Ron. And I'm glad you love the MelodyAmami friendship :) Wow, long review response XD**_

_**Flower Power: Hmm, interesting name :) Yeah, Hufflepuff Trio ftw!**_


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